Twins Hitting Coach David Popkins Gets Ejected, Curses Out Umpire After Terrible Strike Three Call

Last night the Minnesota Twins beat the Oakland Athletics but were forced to suffer through some bad umpiring in the process. Home plate ump Nic Lentz had a tough night, highlighted by this horrible called strike three against Carlos Correa in a full count that would have otherwise loaded the bases. It obviously did not swing the result of the game but a bad call is a bad call. It even inspired a discussion by the Twins’ broadcast booth about how much they were looking forward to the rule changes that would allow a manager to challenge such a call.

This was the tone of the evening and therefore it should come as no surprise that Joey Gallo got called out on a very similar low pitch that should have been a ball. Which is what led to David Popkins, hitting coach for the Twins, to tell Lentz exactly what he thought. Popkins was ejected and let out a stream of curses before exiting the dugout.

As noted in the tweet it was indeed borderline and someone just tuning in might find the reaction to be a bit overzealous. But paired with the Correa call one inning earlier and you can understand why Popkins went off.

It seems the umps need no ramp-up period to get back to midseason form after the All-Star Break.