Cubs’ Maddon has moved on from July 4
CHICAGO — Don’t expect anything other than competitive baseball if you’re tuning in to watch the Pirates take on the division-leading Chicago Cubs this weekend, at least according to Cubs manager Joe Maddon.
“I don’t think there will be any carryover. We made our point the other day,” Maddon said Friday before the Pirates lost, 4-3 at Wrigley Field. “I’m pretty good at putting things down and moving on. I think our group is also. I don’t anticipate any of that stuff coming into play. We need to focus on playing good baseball.”
Maddon was ejected from the game July 4 at PNC Park. Jordan Lyles threw inside to the Javy Baez, and Maddon took exception. He went out to the field and was restrained by home-plate umpire Joe West. Cubs infielder David Bote later was hit in the head with a Clay Holmes pitch after Maddon was ejected.
Maddon said after the game the Pirates have a reputation for throwing inside and making hitters uncomfortable. Pirates manager Clint Hurdle defended his team again Friday before the game.
“We don’t encourage anybody throwing at anybody’s head. Never had. Never will,” Hurdle told reporters. “Moving people off the plate has been around a long time.”
Hitters are crowding the plate more than ever to hit pitches on the outer corners. Hurdle and the Pirates want to own the whole plate, and that’s where part of the conflict exists.
“A combination of hitters’ offensive approaches sometimes can become a dynamic, where their front foot hits when they go to hit the ball,” Hurdle said. “If a pitch is inside, how far really is it inside? You get some dramatic effects, then you go back and look at where the ball actually was, sometimes it looks worse than it is. By no means, anybody who gets thrown up and in, I can understand anybody saying something, absolutely. That’s not one of our teaching techniques.”
Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo has a different point of view.
“They throw in all of the time. It’s part of the game now. You defend your guys,” Rizzo said. “It’s a great theory [if] you throw at [Javier Baez’s] head three times and throw a slider down and away, you’re going to get him out. It’s scary. Until Major League Baseball steps in and does something, it’s a good formula to get guys out. Throw at them and get them scared so they get off the plate and throw it down and away to get guys out.”
Rizzo acknowledged there is a difference between owning the plate and being dirty.
“At some point, you have to stand up, and Joe did that. It’s the ebb and flow of the game. You get hit by a slider inside, you know that isn’t intentional,” Rizzo said. “It’s the fastballs high and inside that every hitter is concerned about. You have a right to get angry when it’s at the hands or at the letters or toward the neck. That’s how the Pirates pitch and they have success.”
Cubs pitcher Jon Lester, who will start Saturday, has a slightly different opinion from Rizzo.
“I’ve never met a person that intentionally tries to throw at someone’s head,” Lester said. “We all know that it is unintentional. However, at the same time, it is at your head. That will get your attention.”
Lester’s perspective aligns somewhat with Hurdle’s on how changes to hitting approaches have made pitching inside more important.
“With the way the ball has changed and the way hitters have changed their approaches, guys are pitching up more,” Lester said. “The problem is that may not be a guy’s strength. Pitching up isn’t my strength, but I know you have to do it to get away from this launch angle stuff.”
More hitters are using uppercut swings to lift the ball, and some pitchers have noted that balls are harder and the seams are harder to grip. One way to combat the combination that has led to a record-setting home run pace is throwing inside and up, which makes batters shorten their swing.
“It’s a fine line. We have to be able to pitch up, and we have to be able to pitch in,” Lester said. “But anytime there is a ball at someone’s head, it’s going to get attention.”