During Thursday’s Cubs-Dodgers game, Jon Lester was obviously frustrated after giving up a walk in the second inning of the game.
However, he couldn’t have foreseen that his frustration would cause umpire Andy Fletcher to basically charge the mound to have some words with the pitcher. Fletcher was so incensed that catcher David Ross essentially had to act as the Cubs’ unofficial bouncer until manager Joe Maddon was able to make his way onto the field to try and diffuse the situation.
It was a bizarre scene, and one that seemingly baffled Lester. After the game (which the Cubs lost 4-0), Lester said that he was at a loss as to why the umpire became so irate because he wasn’t angry with Fletcher:
“I didn’t say anything directed at him,” Lester said. “I don’t know why (Fletcher) was so upset. I had my head down when I was yelling. He went AWOL. I don’t know what was going on. It has nothing to do with umpire’s strike zone.”
Obviously, Flether thought differently.
“Andy wanted to make sure [Lester’s reaction] wasn’t directed toward him,” Ross said. “I was making sure [Fletcher] would talk to me and not Jon.”
Thankfully, nothing really came of the rather bizarre confrontation. Nonetheless, this is a rather bad look for Fletcher. After all, it’s an umpire’s job to diffuse situations like these, not create them.
[Chicago Tribune][Yahoo! Sports]
