CHICAGO -- The Chicago Cubs knew an ejection was coming despite their insistence that closer Hector Rondon wasn’t trying to hit St. Louis Cardinals pinch-hitter hitter Greg Garcia to lead off the ninth inning with the Cubs leading 5-1 on Saturday afternoon. In fact, home plate umpire Bruce Dreckman apparently didn’t believe the hit-by-pitch was purposeful either.
"The home plate umpire came to me and said 'I know it’s not on purpose' but I have to take it," Rondon said after the game.
Rondon had to go because in the previous inning Kolten Wong had been hit by-a-pitch for the second time and both benches were warned. And even though it’s pretty clear the Cubs weren’t going to waste their closer on hitting the leadoff man in a game they wanted to win, they understood why Dreckman took the action that he did.
"That’s an interpretation by the umpires," manager Joe Maddon said after he was ejected by rule along with Rondon. "There’s a lot of pressure coming from the other side to do what eventually did happen.
"I’m not going to pass judgment, probably, because it worked out in our favor."
It barely worked out for the Cubs as reliever Zac Rosscup gave up a two-run home run to Matt Carpenter to make it 5-3 and then allowed the tying runs to reach before Pedro Strop shut the door for a 5-4 win. The warnings stemmed from Friday’s game when Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo was hit by a pitch in the seventh inning after the Cardinals' Matt Holliday was hit in the head earlier in the game. But Maddon insisted the three times his pitchers hit Cardinals on Saturday -- especially Garcia in the ninth -- were unintentional.
"I know nobody wants to believe me," Maddon said. "You’re not going to believe me, Cardinal Nation. God bless, you’re not going to want to believe me. I get it. There’s no way for me to sit here and even attempt to ameliorate your concerns. None of that was intentional. It happens. It’s part of the game, but again go ahead and lay it on me. It’s OK.”
It was Rondon’s fourth batter hit this season.
"In that situation you want to finish the game," he said. "I know the warnings, but I don’t have to change how I pitch.
"We don’t want to hurt anybody."