Cubs' Joe Maddon On Pirates After Hit-By-Pitch Drama: 'Hopefully They'll Learn From It'
(CBS) A day after his Cubs and the rival Pirates continued their bad blood with a hit-by-pitch drama, manager Joe Maddon was still upset by Pittsburgh's actions Monday night.
Cubs second baseman Ben Zobrist appeared to be hit on purpose by Pirates left-hander Kyle Lobstein leading off the seventh inning, just a half-inning after Pittsburgh outfielder Starling Marte was hit in the wrist with a pitch by Chicago right-hander Jason Hammel. Zobrist getting hit angered Maddon, who yelled at Lobstein and exchanged words with Pirates catcher Francisco Cervelli as well.
On Tuesday, Maddon elaborated some more and again insinuated that the Pirates need to learn how to conduct themselves better.
"Why would you ever hit Ben Zobrist in your whole life?" Maddon said on the Spiegel and Goff Show. "He's one of the most professional players in all of Major League Baseball. Obviously, we did not hit Marte on purpose. As you said, he gets hit a lot. We're ahead, he's leading off an inning, there's no reason to do any of that. So I was upset, I was very upset."
Maddon believes that Lobstein hit Zobrist based on orders from someone on the Pirates with more clout. This is the 26-year-old Lobstein's first season in Pittsburgh, so he wasn't a part of the Pirates squad that lost to the Cubs in the NL wild-card game last fall.
"And then it can't be a unilateral decision based on Lobstein's past," Maddon said. "He's not going to make that decision to hit Ben Zobrist. It was really absurd on all different levels, and that's why I got upset.
"I was yelling at Lobstein, but everybody got the message. Here's a young man, if you're told to do something like that, of course you probably have to do it. But then again, you have choices to make. Again, there's real reasons to do different things. That was a contrived reason, absolutely it was. Hopefully they'll learn from it. Like I said though, when you're going after Ben Zobrist, I have a problem with that."
The Cubs won the game 7-2, with Zobrist scoring the final tally of the game a few batters after he was plunked.
"Retribution has to be more organic as opposed to having someone tell you to do something," Maddon said. "That's why I've often talked about players policing themselves. With all the new rules in the game that I'm really not into, again, I think that the players would be able to eventually tone things down or get retribution, whatever you want to call it."
Listen to Maddon's full interview below.
