Major League Baseball announced on Tuesday that a hard slide by Anthony Rizzo in the guest appearance of his Chicago Cubs at the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday was illegal, contrary to the opinion of the Umpire. This in turn caused irritation for Cubs manager Joe Maddon.
With loaded bases, Rizzo had run from third base towards Home Plate and tried to break off a potential double play with a slide. He caught wrestler Elias Diaz hard and took him off his legs. Afterwards Diaz threw the ball over the first base into the right field, whereupon two Cubs players came home. Chicago finally won 7-0.
A review showed that the slide was legal and Rizzo hadn’t changed his direction in order to drive Diaz around. Pirate’s manager Clint Hurdle then complained to the Umpire crew and was expelled.
On Tuesday, however, the league decided after looking at the pictures again that Rizzo’s slide was indeed illegal and there was an interference. MLB Chief Baseball Officer Joe Torre communicated this in a conversation with Maddon.
Maddon then told reporters: “It was good baseball play. The next day it was interpreted as wrong, which I find completely undecided.”
“The Umpire made the right decision,” Maddon continued. “It’s almost like when doctors look at the images from an MRI. You may get two different opinions based on the same information. I won’t give in. I think I’m right.”
However, this realization does not threaten Rizzo with consequences.
All results of the night you will find in our new MLB Scoreboard.
This article was published without previous view by the Major League Baseball.