Here’s what you need to know: The Arizona Diamondbacks suck. They follow baseball’s unwritten rules like a code of honor, so, after one of their batters was (unintentionally) pegged by a Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher and was injured in the process, they decided to retaliate by intentionally hitting Pirates star Andrew McCutchen in the back with a 95-mph fastball. It looked like this:
Tony La Russa, Diamondbacks chief baseball officer, has a different view on this matter though. At least that’s what he told MLB.com:
So what’s happened is some teams have developed this idea that they can pitch in and up. Well it’s got rewards because I don’t care if you’re a right-hander or left-hander, that spot right there, nobody gets to that pitch. So it’s a hole for everybody. The problem is, unless you have Greg Maddux pitching, that’s a very risky area to throw in.”
“And I don’t judge because if that’s the way you want to pitch, you need to understand with those rewards it comes with risks. So for those teams that are really featuring that style of finishing a hitter or setup the outside pitch by throwing the ball up and in, the other team that sees that they say, ‘Wait a minute, we’re going to throw the ball in more often.’ So those teams the risk they face is that they get pitched in more often.”
To summarize, La Russa thinks the Diamondbacks just like to pitch “in and up,” and, because that is a tough spot to hit, sometimes batters get hit, or “it comes with risks” as La Russa would like to say. Tony La Russa sucks, just like his Diamondbacks.
What La Russa probably meant is this: If you hit us, we’ll hit you back. Because, you know, baseball.
[MLB] and [Deadspin]
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