The rivalry between the Pittsburgh Pirates and Chicago Cubs remains alive and well.
The two teams traded hit batsmen during Saturday’s game, with the Pirates in particular accusing Jake Arrieta of throwing at Jung Ho Kang, an allegation the Cubs denied.
“Anytime somebody like Arrieta hits somebody, you’ve got to assume automatically that one didn’t just get away,” Pirates pitcher Jeff Locke told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, via ESPN’s Jesse Rogers. “When he misses like that, maybe you raise an eyebrow or something. Jung Ho is as talented as anybody. You want to make good pitches to him, too, so maybe you get away from going in. I don’t know what happened on the pitch. It got him pretty plush, though.”
Cubs catcher Miguel Montero had plenty to say about the accusations.
“That’s really stupid,” Montero said when told of Locke’s comments. “Seriously? That’s stupid to say. He didn’t want to hit him. I guarantee you that he doesn’t want to hit him. He was a little wild in that inning. He was hit a few times and was a little wild.”
Locke later grazed Montero with a pitch, which resulted in warnings – though both teams agreed that it was unintentional.
The Pirates have some previous with the Cubs, and particularly with Arrieta. They traded beanballs a week and a half prior to this latest incident, and during last year’s wildcard game, the benches cleared when Arrieta was hit by a pitch – an incident that led to this iconic moment.
