Mar 27, 2025; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; Arizona Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo (17) looks on before the game against the Chicago Cubs at Chase Field. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-Imagn Images / Joe Camporeale-Imagn Images
Arizona Diamondbacks third baseman Eugenio Suarez has a long but powerful swing that sometimes looks relaxed, but generates a ton of loud contact, resulting in 277 long balls in his career. That was on display in the second inning against the Chicago Cubs Thursday night facing left-hander Justin Steele.
Suarez was able to extend on a fastball out over the plate and drove it 430 feet into the left field bleachers. The Cubs clearly had a plan to not allow that to happen again. They started trying to pitch him up and in, and keep him from going out and getting pitches.
The problem was they could not control their pitches, and put Suarez’s health at risk with their wildness inside. First reliever Nate Pearson hit Suarez on the upper shoulder in the sixth inning. Then in the eighth inning Porter Hodge threw not one, but two pitches right at Suarez’s face, causing the slugger to spin out to barely avoid a life-threatening injury.
Eugenio Suarez homers and then is hit by a pitch #Dbacks #Cubs https://t.co/464318JE6M #MLBFilmRoom via @MLB
— Jack Sommers (@shoewizard59) March 28, 2025
When Pearson hit Suarez the score was 8-3 in favor of the Cubs with first base was occupied by Gabriel Moreno, who had already drawn a walk by the wild Pearson.
When Hodge buzzed Suarez’s tower twice in one at-bat, the score was 8-5 with Moreno on first base again, this time via a single. Hodge also threw a wild pitch in the at-bat, moving the D-backs catcher to second.
The looks on Suarez’s face, especially following the second near miss said it all. “Enough already.” Those pitches were ultimately effective however, as they were followed by sweepers away that Suarez couldn’t handle, striking out swinging.
Pitching inside to move a batter off the plate and make him move his feet, followed by pitches away, is a time-honored strategy to try to get hitters out. There was little if any cause to believe the Cubs pitchers were throwing at Suarez intentionally.
But continually missing upstairs near a batter’s head and face is different. In the game of baseball, “I didn’t do it on purpose” doesn’t really cut it. Old school baseball dictated that teams would self police in these situations, and retaliate by throwing inside against the offending team’s hitters as well.
That type of behavior ultimately led to a lot of fights and all out brawls at times. YouTube is rife with clips of teams spilled all over the field, throwing haymakers and landing punches over errant pitches. But in this modern age of image consciousness, Major League Baseball has worked hard to clean up that part of the game.
The League office has communicated with managers repeatedly that retaliation will not be tolerated and a warning system has been in place for years now that allows umpires to nip things in the bud. If they believe a pitcher has thrown at a batter intentionally, warnings are issued, and if the umpire determines a pitcher has thrown at a batter intentionally, whether hitting him or not, that pitcher will be ejected from the game.
That leaves the wide open area of poor execution however. Following the game Thursday I asked Torey Lovullo just what recourse a manager has in a situation like the one that occurred. Lovullo has stated multiple times in the past that he does not believe in throwing at people intentionally.
But does a team have the right to keep going inside so aggressively when their pitchers can’t control their pitches? What can a manager do in response beyond retaliation that will result in warnings, ejections, fines, and suspensions?
A clearly upset Lovullo gave an enlightening answer, as can be heard in the video below. Essentially his only option is to lodge a complaint with the league offices and umpires, and let them handle things with the offending team to make it stop. He said the league promised him they would take care of things. How exactly that’s done isn’t clear however.
Lovullo did not believe there was intent, but he also stressed that it’s up to the pitcher to get the ball down in those situations.
With three more games to go in this series, the opportunity is ripe for conflict. It seems unlikely that Cubs manager Craig Counsell will have his pitchers back off from pitching inside. But it’s early in the season, and while pitchers may be throwing as hard as ever, they may not have their full command.
If they continue to come inside and hit batters (Corbin Carroll was hit by a Steele pitch on the elbow pad as well), then the D-backs may be forced to take matters into their own hands. If they do that, then all bets are off how things will play out for the rest of the series.
Published 10 Hours Ago|Modified 1:09 PM EDT
