Protest on Doolittle does little

WASHINGTON — The Cubs dropped their protest over Nationals pitcher Sean Doolittle’s toe-tap delivery almost as soon as manager Joe Maddon cried foul in the ninth inning Saturday at Nationals Park.

Maddon had made his larger point by simply raising the issue after his pitcher, Carl Edwards Jr., was told in March that a similar move was illegal.

“We went through the whole process [Sunday]. Our guys in the office spoke to MLB, and I talked to Mr. Torre,” Maddon said of Joe Torre, baseball’s lead rules and discipline executive. “The whole thing I wanted to get done was to protect Carl.

“I really didn’t anticipate a whole lot to be done with it even though I still don’t agree with the conclusion because I think it is exactly what Carl did, only a different version of it. But the point was I would not be a good parent had I not spoken up for my guy.”

Edwards was confronted after he used his move March 30 in Texas after Rangers manager Chris Woodward complained, and Edwards was told his move was illegal. Mariners reliever Cory Gearrin was told the same thing about a similar move in a game Monday against the A’s.

Crew chief Sam Holbrook, the plate umpire Saturday, ruled Doolittle’s move was legal, however.

Maddon said the league “called that a ‘graze’ as opposed to an actual foot landing on the ground.’’

Edwards has abandoned the move and gone back to a more traditional delivery.

“It’s an absolute, classical case of Pandora’s Box being opened,” Maddon said of the growing confusion.