PITTSBURGH -- Pirates second baseman Brandon Lowe was ejected in the fourth inning of the Bucs' 10-9 win over the Twins on Saturday at PNC Park. It came after Lowe completed his plate appearance after having appeared to challenge a strike call with the ABS system, but he wasn’t granted the challenge by home-plate umpire Alex Tosi.
Lowe flied out to left field, and after rounding first base, was promptly ejected by crew chief and first-base ump Jordan Baker. Lowe had appeared to say something while rounding first.
“That was just total, like Jordan [Baker] did not understand what [Lowe] was saying, and totally overreacted, I thought,” Pirates manager Don Kelly said. “Lowe was upset that he thought that he had swung at ball four, and Jordan thought that he was yelling at the home-plate umpire, and it was a total misunderstanding.”
Lowe confirmed postgame that he was mad at himself for swinging at a high-and-in fastball while sitting on a changeup. Kelly said the explanation he received was that the dugout influenced the call, which he disagreed with. Kelly, who leads the National League with three ejections this year, emerged from the dugout multiple times to argue the ruling but he was not ejected.
The ejection was the first of Lowe’s nine-year Major League career. Lowe felt there were certainly more exhilarating ways to get tossed for the first time.
“Kind of a sad first ejection, I guess, if we're looking at ejections as a whole,” Lowe said. “But yeah, I was just frustrated with myself, and let out my frustration to myself, and got thrown out for it. I didn't even realize that I was thrown out until I was about three-quarters of the way back to the dugout, and saw [hitting coach Jonny Tucker] kind of pointing towards first base.”
Tyler Callihan replaced Lowe at second base in the top of the fifth inning. Lowe was 1-for-3 with a second-inning single and a run scored. He's hitting .261 with an .886 OPS in his first year with the Pirates.