Joe Maddon Protests Cubs Loss to Nats Over Double Toe Tap

The Chicago Cubs protested Saturday night’s 5-2 loss to the Nationals, with manager Joe Maddon arguing that Washington reliever Sean Doolittle used an illegal delivery in the ninth inning.

Maddon didn’t like that Doolittle’s delivery involved him pausing and potentially even touching the ground in the middle of his wind up before coming home with the pitch.

“That’s exactly what I was told Carl can’t do,” Maddon said postgame.”There’s no judgment. If he taps the ground, it’s an illegal pitch, period. There’s nothing to judge. You can judge whether he did or not. It’s obvious that he did, or if you can’t tell that then there’s something absolutely wrong.”

Maddon and the Cubs protested the game as a result. If they win the protest, the game would be restarted with one out in the ninth, when Maddon notified the umpires of the protest.

Doolittle was not happy about Maddon’s actions.

From crew chief Sam Holbrook: “In our judgement, [Doolittle] did absolutely nothing illegal at all.”

Also there was no review, they just wanted to let NY know the game was being played under protest and double-check rules. Following protocol.

— Jamal Collier (@JamalCollier) May 19, 2019

“I have no qualms against Doolittle,” Maddon said.

“He’s great, but they took it away from our guy so for me to sit in the dugout and permit that to happen while they stripped us of that ability earlier this year with Carl, how could I do that? You can’t do that. I got to say something.”

Decide for yourself below:

Joe Maddon protested last night’s game saying Sean Doolittle was allowed the same delivery Carl Edwards was told is illegal.

Edwards’ is more pronounced but I agree with Maddon here – there’s still a noticeable toe tap hesitation. pic.twitter.com/7Ea89IqFK8

— Casey Keirnan (@CaseyKeirnan) May 19, 2019