After returning to the first team for the first time in more than two months, Lee Yong-kyu was sent off for protesting a questionable call by the umpire.
On the 23rd, the final game of a three-game weekend series between Lotte and Kiwoom in the KBO was held at Sajik Baseball Stadium in Busan. Lee’s ejection came in the sixth inning of a tightly contested game.
The game was suspended for nearly an hour and a half due to a sudden downpour of rain before resuming.
In the sixth inning, with runners on first and second, Kiwoom Yong-kyu faced Lotte’s Koo Seung-min again on a two-ball no-strike.
Koo took three pitches for strikes. The problem came when Koo Seung-min threw a four-pitch 130-kilometer forkball.
Koo Seung-min’s forkball sailed outside and out of the strike zone, but umpire Kim Seo-soo ruled Yong-gyu’s check swing as a swing. Lee Yong-kyu appealed that it was not a swing, but it was not accepted.
The umpire’s call was ambiguous. The umpire was a bit slow to call a strike or a checked swing. Lee protested that the bat did not turn.
In a two-ball, two-strike at-bat, Yong-kyu hit Koo Seung-min’s five-pitch at-bat, but was called out on a fly ball to center field. The umpire’s swinging call left Yong-kyu frustrated, and he protested to umpire Kim again.
Coach Hong Won-ki quickly rushed to stop him, but the referee immediately ordered Yong-gyu to leave the field after he protested again after his first protest.
When he was sent off, Lee was furious. Even as the players tried to calm him down, he couldn’t contain his anger.
“Are you sure it was a swing?” he shouted at the umpire, double-checking his swing. The umpires gathered and informed head coach Hong Won-ki of the ejection, and Yong-kyu’s ejection remained unchanged.
Impatient, Yong-kyu continued to protest for a while before his teammates stopped him and headed to the dugout. The third-base cheerleading squad, Kiwoom, continued to cheer.
The umpire could have asked the third base umpire to call the swing instead of making the call himself. The umpire’s sole judgment created a situation that could have been unfair to Lee Yong-gyu. After Yong-gyu’s first and second protests, he was ordered to leave the game.
After returning to the first team for the first time in two months, Yong-kyu played a multi-hit game, but a questionable call led to a disappointing ejection.온라인카지노
Lee vehemently protested the call, but his ejection was not overturned. The veteran walked out of the dugout, impatient with his teammates’ consolations.