Sean Doolittle does a tap dance on Joe Maddon's mind games

Tom Gatto

Sean Doolittle does a tap dance on Joe Maddon's mind games image

Here's the Cliff's Notes version of the ninth inning of Cubs-Nationals on Saturday night: Toe tap, no tap, Joe's chapped, Doo claps back.

The longer version: Cubs manager Joe Maddon was upset that Nats closer Sean Doolittle was allowed to tap his front foot on the mound while delivering a pitch, and he argued with the umpires about it.

Fox Sports 1 broadcaster Len Kasper, the Cubs' regular TV voice, reminded viewers that MLB told Cubs pitcher Carl Edwards Jr. earlier this season that his toe tap constituted an illegal pitch. In Maddon's mind, umpires should have treated Doolittle the same.

Maddon eventually protested the game.

SIGN UP for a FREE 30-day trial of DAZN and watch LIVE baseball games and programming on MLB Network

A video comparison of the motions and what Doolittle said umpires told him Saturday:

That's part of why Doolittle wasn't fazed by the gamesmanship. He retired the Cubs in order in the ninth inning to nail down a save. Afterward, he tweaked Maddon and his reputation for being a baseball savant:

Given Doolittle's comments, Maddon's protest probably isn't worth, well, something that rhymes with tap.

Tom Gatto

Tom Gatto Photo

Tom Gatto joined The Sporting News as a senior editor in 2000 after 12 years at The Herald-News in Passaic, N.J., where he served in a variety of roles including sports editor, and a brief spell at APBNews.com in New York, where he worked as a syndication editor. He is a 1986 graduate of the University of South Carolina.