Sean Doolittle jabbed Joe Maddon after the Chicago Cubs manager filed a protest following Saturday’s game.
Doolittle pitched a scoreless ninth to pick up the save in his Washington Nationals’ 5-2 win over the Cubs. Maddon came out twice during the ninth to complain about a toe tap the closer does during his delivery.
Joe Maddon has protested the Cubs vs Nationals game, arguing (presumably) that Sean Doolittle was throwing illegal pitches. Here's the pitch that ultimately led to the protest. pic.twitter.com/vcN5ccbUYo
— Ben Porter (@Ben13Porter) May 19, 2019
Maddon justified his protest, saying his reliever Carl Edwards Jr was told during spring training that he couldn’t do a similar toe tap. His argument is that if his guy can’t do it, why should another pitcher?
Maddon: “It’s the principle of it. I never wanted that argument. I never thought it was illegal when I saw Carl do it in spring training. It’s their rule; it’s not mine. …if it happened to my guy and I don’t argue it, that’s being a pretty bad parent right there.”
— Gordon Wittenmyer (@GDubCub) May 19, 2019
Doolittle thought something else was up. He thought Maddon was trying to throw him off and prove “how smart he is.”
Doolittle said of Cubs protest: “it was a thinly viewed attempt to throw me off my game.”
On Maddon: “Sometimes he has to remind people how smart he is…he put his stamp on that one for sure.”
— Brittany Ghiroli (@Britt_Ghiroli) May 19, 2019
Maddon has long been viewed as an outside-the-box thinker, which is why Doolittle was taking a shot at him over his intellectual ability. Maybe the protest wasn’t so much about Doolittle as pointing out hypocrisy in the rules.
