Joe Maddon was ejected from Thursday night’s Chicago Cubs-Pittsburgh Pirates game for arguing balls and strikes.
Maddon was upset with a strike call on Victor Caratini in bottom of the fifth. Joe Musgrove threw a breaking ball that crossed at the knees and was called a strike by umpire Mike Estabrook. Maddon thought it should have been ball four, so he protested. He came out of the dugout despite being warned not to by Estabrook and was tossed as a result.
Jackass threw out Maddon. He's figures I'm already injected I'm going to get my point across. he's probably thinking I would not have had to come out if you knew how to actually call balls and Strikes correctly…. listen to that cheering for Joe. pic.twitter.com/LTJEDRUGMP
— Brandon (@bampac29) April 12, 2019
Maddon may have been irritated about the zone, but the truth is the pitch crossed the plate in the strike zone and was a good call by Estabrook.
The pitch that got Maddon tossed pic.twitter.com/DpZaQ6H1Rw
— Alex Stumpf (@AlexJStumpf) April 12, 2019
Maddon was probably ticked off because he’s desperate. His Cubs have started the season 3-8 and were in a scoreless game. Had that pitch been called a ball, the Cubs would have had the bases loaded with only one out. Instead, the strike call made it a full count and Caratini struck out. The Cubs ended up stranding both runners, keeping things scoreless.
