A Major League Baseball pitcher had yet to be ejected for using sticky stuff through the first two days of the sport’s crackdown, but a former Chattanooga Lookout was.
Reiver Sanmartin, who pitched for the Lookouts in 2019 and again this season, was booted from Tuesday night’s Triple-A game between the host Louisville Bats and the Indianapolis Indians. Cincinnati Reds pitcher Jeff Hoffman was making a rehab start for the Bats and threw the first two innings before being replaced by Sanmartin, who worked the third and fourth innings before getting tossed.
Louisville manager Pat Kelly, who guided the Lookouts in 2019, confirmed the ejection to the Louisville Courier-Journal.
Sanmartin, a 6-foot-2, 160-pounder from Colombia, was superb for the Double-A Lookouts before being promoted. The 25-year-old lefty posted a 2-0 record and an 0.50 ERA in four games, three of which were starts, and racked up 23 strikeouts in 18 innings.
Tuesday night marked Sanmartin’s fifth appearance with Louisville.