The Minnesota Twins third baseman was watching the ALCS from home, and couldn’t help but let Twitter know how he feels about umpire John Tumpane
MLB fans spent their Monday afternoon watching Game 2 of the ALCS between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Houston Astros. Tampa Bay took the first matchup of the series by the score of 2-1, thanks to the power of budding superstar Randy Arozarena and the insane depth of their bullpen. Game 2 has been much of the same as the first meeting, as Houston struggled knocking in base runners, which can be credited to the pitching prowess of Rays pitcher Charlie Morton. Tampa Bay managed to pull off the 4-2 win, giving them a 2-0 lead in the Championship Series.
During the contest, Morton struck out Astros outfielder Michael Brantley on a pitch just on the outside of the batter’s box. After a video surfaced of it, Minnesota Twins third baseman Josh Donaldson couldn’t contain himself and let the Twitter world know that home plate umpire John Tumpane is one of the worst in the game. Top-three, to be specific.
If anyone knows about umpires, it’s Donaldson
While that 81 MPH curveball was impressive by Morton, that was not a strike. That was a ball. Hence Donaldson’s decree that Tumpane was one of the top three worst umpires in MLB. In fact, the bombastic infielder said that Tumpane “has no idea what the zone is in the rule book.”
Donaldson hasn’t been the only one critical of Tumpane as of late. At the tail end of the regular-season, New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone was ejected for arguing with Tumpane after he called low strikes to outfielder Aaron Judge.
As we know, Donaldson is not afraid to speak his mind when it comes to umpires, even if it’s in their face. During a game against the Chicago White Sox, Donaldson got into heated disagreements with home plate umpire Dan Bellino. After hitting a home run, Donaldson kicked dirt over home plate, resulting in Bellino ejecting him from the contest.
MLB umpires have been put on notice. If you mess up, Donaldson is going to let you hear about it, even if he’s not participating in that specific game.