Hot Mics Capture Derek Shelton's Rant After His Second Twins Ejection

No lip reading is necessary when watching the video of Twins manager Derek Shelton's second ejection of the young season. Hot mics on Twins.TV captured plenty of audio as Shelton made his feelings known to home plate umpire Nic Lentz after being tossed during Saturday's game at Target Field.

The scene occurred in the top of the seventh inning, which began with the Twins leading the Reds by a 4-2 score. After six strong innings from Taj Bradley, Shelton went to his (very suspect) bullpen. Justin Topa entered the game and allowed a leadoff single, then recorded a couple outs. With a lefty due up, the Twins went to Kody Funderburk, who proceeded to hit the next batter with a pitch.

The ensuing at-bat is what led to Shelton's ejection. On a 1-1 pitch to Elly De La Cruz, first base umpire Hunter Wendelstedt ruled that De La Cruz successfully checked his swing, resulting in ball two. Shelton could immediately be heard voicing his disagreement to Wendelstedt, although replay did seem to suggest the call was the right one.

On the very next pitch, De La Cruz singled up the middle to cut Cincinnati's deficit to one. And Shelton, who continued to bark at Wendelstedt, was then tossed by Lentz. "I just told you I wasn't going to hear any more," Lentz said.

"I wasn't even f***ing talking to you," Shelton could be easily heard saying. He proceeded to explain to Lentz that he was talking to Wendelstedt. "I didn't say anything to you," he said. "All I said was 'let's f***ing go.' That's bulls***." Far more than usual, the audio was quite present on the TV broadcast, which didn't beep out any of Shelton's profanity.

"I WASN'T EVEN F*CKING TALKING TO YOU"

No need for any lip reading of this ejection of Twins manager Derek Shelton pic.twitter.com/GUu0wTaogm
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) April 18, 2026

It's the 18th career ejection for Shelton and his second in 21 games as the Twins' manager. His first of the season came on March 29 in Baltimore after a dispute and misunderstanding over an ABS challenge technicality.

Twins' bullpen falters in loss

The Twins held the lead for much of Saturday's game, but couldn't protect it in the final innings and fell 5-4 for their second straight one-run defeat against the Reds in this series.

They had a 2-0 lead after a Ryan Jeffers two-run triple in the first inning, his first three-base hit since 2023. The Reds cut it to 2-1 against Bradley in the second inning, but the Twins got their run back on a Luke Keaschall RBI single in the third. The Reds then cut it to 3-2 in the fourth, but the Twins again pushed the lead back to two on a Brooks Lee RBI single in the fifth.

After De La Cruz made it a 4-3 game in the seventh, Austin Martin protected the lead with a great catch at the wall to strand a pair of runners. But in the eighth, the Reds tied it with a couple hits and a sacrifice fly against Twins reliever Eric Orze.

The top of the ninth began with Lee unable to make a play on a Spencer Steer ground ball in the hole. It was scored as a hit but could've easily been ruled an error on Lee, who continues to underwhelm defensively at shortstop. The Reds bunted Steer to second and then drove him in on a bloop single by Dane Myers to go up 5-4, and the Twins — who didn't score a run in the final four innings — went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the ninth.

The Twins, now 11-10, will look to avoid a sweep at 1:10 p.m. on Sunday.

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