As Amir Garrett came into Saturday’s game against the Cubs to face Anthony Rizzo with one out in the eighth inning, it only took a glance at the scoreboard to see how his season has gone — right there it told you everything you needed to know: 12.27 ERA.
After the Reds traded Raisel Iglesias in December, Garrett claimed the closer’s job as his own. Even as Reds manager David Bell said that he wasn’t going to name a closer, that several pitchers would share the duties to get the final outs, Garrett not only kept his flag planted in the ground, he waved it proudly.
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That confidence and bravado has been part of Garrett’s motivation his entire career and it certainly has rubbed some people the wrong way, including several in Chicago.
He had struck out just four of the 37 batters he’d faced this season (and none in his previous three outings) before facing Rizzo for the 18th time in his career on Saturday. Even the most confident player can find his confidence wavering.
Garrett took a positive step Wednesday (two days after giving up the game-tying home run against the Dodgers) by working a perfect inning in Los Angeles, but he didn’t strike out any of the three batters he faced. So when Rizzo chased a 2-2 slider for the first out, Garrett released some of his pent-up energy, pounded his chest and yelled.
The sympathetic view is that he was hyping himself up, releasing all the negative energy from the first month of the 2021 season and pumping himself up to face David Bote.
“From my standpoint, I saw Amir speaking to himself. I may be wrong,” Reds manager David Bell said. “I thought it was Amir showing excitement and it was directed at himself. He was excited. He’s been working to get back to that point. But I don’t know how it was interpreted by the Cubs.”
Let’s just say the Cubs didn’t take the sympathetic view.
“I think it’s garbage,” Cubs manager David Ross said. “But he’s not on my team.”
As he walked to the home dugout, Rizzo looked back at Garrett but kept walking. Javier Báez, who’d just struck out against Heath Hembree, did not. He screamed from the dugout and then hopped over the railing onto the field and seemed to make a motion that indicated he was challenging Garrett to a fight. At one point, as Báez was being held back by Reds third baseman Mike Moustakas, he raised a middle finger toward Garrett.
“I’m just not going to let him or anyone disrespect my teammates or my team,” Báez said after the game. “It was not a big situation. I’m going to try to stay professional with this. It doesn’t matter who does it again, if somebody else does it again, we will go out there again.”
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Garrett was not made available to the media by the Reds.
It wasn’t the first time the two have had words. Báez hit a grand slam in his first-ever appearance against Garrett on May 18, 2017. On May 19, 2018, Garrett struck him out to end an inning and screamed in celebration. Báez took exception then, as well, talking back to Garrett, who then said something back, prompting both teams to take to the field.
“I love Javy Báez as a player. I love the way he plays the game,” Garrett said in 2018. “But, you know, if you’re going to dish it, you’ve got to take it sometimes. That’s just how it goes. There’s no hard feeling there. It’s over.”
In his career, Báez is 3-for-7 with three home runs, an intentional walk and two strikeouts against Garrett. Last season, Báez homered in his only plate appearance against him.
“I’ve hit three homers against him and I didn’t do anything to show him up or his team, you know?” Báez said Saturday. “Like I said, he can be 6-7, he can be 10 feet, we’re not afraid of that. We’re here to play baseball and win games. We’re not here to fight.”
Last season, the Reds and Cubs emptied their benches after Rizzo yelled at Bell from first base as the Reds manager was talking to the umpires following a couple of pitches up and in on Shogo Akiyama. That led to ejections of Joey Votto and Jesse Winker in addition to Bell. In that same game, Ross accused the Reds’ Tejay Antone of throwing at Rizzo’s head.
Garrett, of course, has rubbed many teams the wrong way. He served an eight-game suspension in 2019 after he charged the Pirates’ dugout and threw punches at several Pittsburgh players. His bravado is celebrated in Cincinnati but reviled outside of it.
Although Báez said Garrett’s teammates — who have always supported him publicly — said otherwise.
“I don’t know what’s going on over there, but whatever they say, they’re lying,” Báez said. “Even their teammates are not on his side. They know he’s wrong. … Nobody is going to follow that.”
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Ross went as far as to insinuate that Garrett should be fined by the league for Saturday’s actions. The Reds’ Nick Castellanos has already been fined and suspended for flexing over Cardinals pitcher Jake Woodford. Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina then shoved an umpire out of the way to grab Castellanos by the neck, leading to the benches clearing. Molina was neither ejected, fined nor suspended. Cubs catcher Willson Contreras was hit twice, including once in the head, by Brewers pitchers earlier this season leading to benches clearing at Wrigley Field. He was later fined.
“That’s not celebrating,” Ross said of Garrett’s yelling.” If Willson Contreras gets fined $7,500 for getting hit in the head, and the reasoning we got is that he instigated, right? That was the reasoning, because he instigated the incident. I don’t know what more … I don’t know what that would be characterized (as) other than instigation. I’ll let the league handle that. That’s their job. My job’s to win ballgames, we did that.”
The Cubs won the second game of the series Saturday, 3-2. Garrett eventually got Bote to fly out to end the eighth and Ryan Hendrix pitched the ninth for the Reds without incident. The teams meet again Sunday and again at Wrigley Field at the end of the month and a total of 17 more times this season.
“(Báez) wants respect in the game and to be disrespected by another player on the field kind of challenges your manhood. This is a man’s game,” Ross said. “I think those are things that I wouldn’t have stood for as a player. That’s for sure. I would’ve been (the) first one in line for that. I can’t do that anymore. I don’t fault any of our guys.”
(Photo: Dylan Buell / Getty Images)
