Cincinnati Reds: Series win comes despite Joe Maddon’s childish actions

The Cincinnati Reds defeated the Chicago Cubs 3-2 in extra innings. The Cubs immature antics made last night’s victory even sweeter.

The Cincinnati Reds took home the win last night against the Chicago Cubs in extra innings. José Iglesias’ double knocked in the game-winning run and the Reds walked out of Wrigley Field with the 3-2 victory. For the season, Cincinnati went 11-8 against the Cubs. Joe Maddon‘s immature antics were not enough to derail the Reds, and that makes the win even sweeter.

Last night, on two different occasions, Maddon tried to get inside the head of a Reds reliever. First, it was the hanging piece of leather dangling from Robert Stephenson‘s glove. Play was stopped in the bottom of the seventh when the umpires investigated Stephenson’s mitt.

For those who haven’t been watching, Stephenson has used the same glove all season long with nary a peep from anyone. It was only after Maddon, who’s team is hanging by a thread in the chase for spot in the NL Wild Card, decided it might be distracting, that he made a big deal about the situation.

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Stephenson acquiesced and tied the string tightly, removing what may have been deemed distracting to the opposing batter. He then struck out Kyle Schwarber on three straight pitches, so it didn’t really affect the Cubs outfielder too much, huh?

Then, when Raisel Iglesias took the mound in the bottom of the 10th, play was stopped again for the umpire to inspect Iggy’s glove. The Reds announcers suspected there was an inquiry as to the color of Iglesias’ glove, which is red with white laces.

Check out Baseball Rules Academy if you want all the details, but essentially what the rule states is that, aside from the piping, a pitcher’s glove must be devoid of white and gray so as not to deceive the hitter.

While the objection may be warranted, Iglesias has been wearing this glove since at least July and the Cubs and Reds had played nine times before last night’s inquiry. In fact, Iglesias was on the mound last night with the exact same glove.

Adding to the intrigue of last night’s win was the brief exchange between Schwarber and Amir Garrett in the ninth inning. After striking out Schwarber with an 87-MPH slider, Garrett excitedly roared and pumped his fist as he left the mound.

Schwarber took exception and began jawing with Garrett as the left-hander headed back to the dugout. Garrett hastened his return and put up both arms as the claim he wasn’t going to get involved in another on-field altercation.

Keep in mind that the Chicago Cubs are the same team that get excited over doubles. I’m pretty sure Nicholas Castellanos spiked his bat a few weeks ago following a home run, and few players in Major League Baseball show more emotion on the field than Javier Baez, right? My point is, don’t dish it out if you can’t take it.

For the Cincinnati Reds to shuffle their starting rotation, which eliminated Luis Castillo‘s scheduled start, and still walk away with a series win is very gratifying. While I’m not typically one who celebrates another’s failure, seeing Maddon’s attempts to sidetrack the Reds result in a loss for he and the Cubs was quite rewarding.