Hot mic picks up Rocco Baldelli telling umpire ‘You f*cked it up’ before ejection

While MLB fans generally have a pretty good understanding of what words managers and players use to trigger an ejection, Thursday night’s game between the Detroit Tigers and Minnesota Twins removed any doubt thanks to Rocco Baldelli.

Detroit took a one-run lead on Minnesota in the top of the 11th inning. Twins catcher Ryan Jeffers led off the bottom of the inning, striking out swinging. There was some controversy about the third strike, though, as it looked as though it might have been both a foul tip and not caught cleanly by Tigers catcher Dillon Dingler.

Umpire John Bacon rang Jeffers up, though, and as Minnesota announcer Cory Provus noted, that’s not a reviewable play. The Twins manager took the field to discuss the play. And while things started calmly enough, that quickly changed.

“No f*cking way. You f*cked it up, man,” Baldelli was heard saying on the hot mic. He was immediately tossed by Bacon.

Twins manager Rocco Baldelli was ejected after telling the umpire, “No fucking way. You fucked it up man.”

Glen Perkins: This has as much to do with the strike zone throughout the game when Skubal was on the mound as it does with this play right here. pic.twitter.com/VtrK9QknDg

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) August 15, 2025

Twins color analyst Glen Perkins noted that Baldelli’s frustration had something to do with what he felt was an inconsistent strike zone.

Following the game, Baldelli acknowledged that determining whether the ball hit the ground wasn’t possible. “Even after looking at the replays, I think it’s almost impossible. It was really close. And Dingler kinda smothered the ball a little bit. And the view’s somewhat obscured. Really, my only point here is, the umpire doesn’t know. And even the first base umpire really doesn’t know. The only way you can probably get the best idea of whether that ball was fouled off or not, is just look at the ball. And he wouldn’t look at it.”

Rocco’s full answer on his ejection, he says they refused to look at the ball pic.twitter.com/eoitX08noQ

— CJ Fogler 🫡 (@cjzero) August 15, 2025

On the Detroit broadcast, Jason Benetti and Andy Dirks seemed more confident that Dingler did catch the ball. But before that, Benetti discussed Baldelli’s ejection.

“Oh wow, Rocco said, ‘You messed it up,’ and he got run,” Benetti pointed out.

As Rocco Baldelli was walking off the field, he threw his hat onto the field, something he did during another Twins game called by Benetti this season. Benetti broke down the differences in Baldelli’s hat-throwing form.

“Wow. There goes the hat again. It wasn’t the full Mary Tyler Moore this time. He went sidearm instead of straight Mary Richards. But it’s become a signature of the manager of the Twins.”

Jason Benetti reacts to Rocco Baldelli’s ejection on the Tigers broadcast. pic.twitter.com/kkWpNlSE0g

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) August 15, 2025

“Wow, there goes the hat again,” he said. “It wasn’t the full Mary Tyler Moore this time. He went sidearm instead of straight Mary Richards. But it’s become a signature of the manager of the Twins.”