SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Arizona manager Torey Lovullo was ejected in the eighth inning of the Diamondbacks game at San Francisco on Wednesday, and moments later returned the favor to the umpiring crew.
Lovullo got ejected for arguing an obstruction call in the bottom of the eighth inning of the Diamondbacks’ 8-7 victory over the Giants.
He didn’t leave without turning the tables on the men in blue. He pointed to each of the four crew members and demonstratively tossed each.
Lovullo’s theatrics were for show only, and after the game, he acknowledged the obstruction call had been the right one.
“They’re really good,” Lovullo said. “Umpires are good. I stand corrected.”
The play began with the Giants’ Christian Koss at first with two outs and Arizona leading 8-6. Heliot Ramos grounded a Ryne Nelson pitch down the third-base line. Eugenio Suarez made a backhand stop and his throw to first was not in time to get Ramos.
Koss, meanwhile, rounded second and collided with second baseman Jordan Lawlar. Koss fell and appeared injured. Koss then was tagged for what would have been the third out. But, the umpires convened and ruled obstruction on Lawlar.
That set off Lovullo, who was ejected by first-base ump Mark Ripperger, the crew chief. “In the heat of the moment,” Lovullo said, “it wasn’t adding up to me and I felt like they were just trying to cover themselves a little bit. But in reality, there was obstruction called.
“I was trying to do the math and I didn’t know how the third-base umpire (Nic Lentz) could be watching a fair-foul ball and then the throw get off and still see obstruction. But he pointed to it and he had it.”
Ultimately, the play did not affect the outcome. Koss stayed in the game, and he and Ramos were stranded when Nelson retired Wilmer Flores on a pop to catcher Jose Herrera.
That meant Lovullo didn’t have to stew over the obstruction ruling.
“When I looked at ’em, nobody put their hands up,” the manager said. “Nobody put their hands out and pointed obstruction, and that’s why I thought they were kind of inventing a call, but they got it right.”
The Diamondbacks took two of three in the series.
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