MILWAUKEE (AP) -Both Prince Fielder on the ground and Matt Capps at the mound were furious, though neither had time to make a scene before Capps was ejected.
Capps plunked Fielder high in the right shoulder just after he allowed a three-run homer to J.J. Hardy in the seventh inning of Milwaukee’s 6-3 victory over Pittsburgh on Saturday night. Home plate umpire Alfonso Marquez immediately ejected the Pirates’ pitcher, who came into the game 2-0 with a 1.76 ERA in 17 appearances.
“I don’t know what the rationale was,” Capps said. “It was a quick hook. I was up close, and I asked him why I was tossed, and obviously stuff like that is a judgmental call on his part, and I am not going to question it. He did what he did, and I am out of the game.”
Fielder laid on the ground staring at Capps, but smiled coyly and slowly walked to first base. He said he didn’t hear what Capps was saying to the umpire.
“Once I saw the umpire throw him out, I was like ‘Oh well, whatever,”’ said Fielder, the Brewers’ clubhouse leader who rarely shows his emotions on the field.
“Capps has got pretty good control, that’s a kid that can bang strikes, you look at his numbers and he’s not walking a lot of guys, so it looked a little fishy,” Brewers manager Ned Yost said. “If you can’t keep your composure and you’ve got to throw at a player, there’s a difference in throwing down low or throwing at his head.”
The benches didn’t clear, even though some of the Brewers did yell toward the animated discussion between Marquez, Capps and Pirates manager Jim Tracy.
“I didn’t see it happen, I just heard everybody get loud and Prince was on the ground,” Hardy said. “I don’t think he was too happy and I know a lot of us weren’t too happy about it.”
Capps said he has a right to throw inside.
“If they don’t like it, that’s their problem,” Capps said. “I am going to continue to throw the ball on the inside part of the plate.”
But Tracy said he understood the call given the situation.
“You potentially get into a situation where you completely lose control of a baseball game,” Tracy said.
Fielder said there’s no place for being thrown at close to the head.
“We don’t need that, (we’ll) just do the talking on the field,” Fielder said.
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