Joe Maddon fumes over Laz Diaz's call of pivotal pitch in Cubs-Cardinals game

Tom Gatto

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Joe Maddon fumes over Laz Diaz's call of pivotal pitch in Cubs-Cardinals game image

Cubs manager Joe Maddon had harsh words for umpire Laz Diaz after the veteran arbiter appeared to fail badly in a big spot Friday night.

Maddon was frustrated that Diaz called a 3-2 pitch by Dillon Maples to the Cardinals' Harrison Bader in the 10th inning a ball even though it looked like a strike

No. 6, green dot, is the pitch in dispute.

Bader-walk-graphic-060119-MLB-EMBED.jpg

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Maples walked the next batter, Jedd Gyorko, to load the bases. Steve Cishek relieved Maples and promptly allowed a game-ending single to Matt Carpenter.

"It wasn't even a borderline pitch. It was a strike," Maddon said, per the Chicago Tribune.

Maddon is not in the "robot umps" camp. He just wants Diaz and every other ump to try not to suck, to borrow a Maddon phrase.

"That's the kind of stuff you want to see something done about, and I'm still not advocating electronic strike zone, I'm just advocating, 'Let's go. Let's go. You cannot miss that pitch in that situation,'" Maddon said.

The pitch to Bader was one of serveral calls by Diaz that left social media howling.

Maddon noted that Chicago's offense didn't do enough in the team's 2-1 loss, but he put more of the blame on that one call in the bottom of the 10th.

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.