Cubs and Brewers benches clear over hit by pitches, a breakdown

Apr 12, 2022 2.7M views 4:59

What Happened

Over the Cubs and Brewers' opening weekend in April 2022, both teams kept plunking each other, accidental or not. Willson Contreras got drilled twice and made it clear he was tired of being a Brewers target. The Cubs eventually decided to retaliate against Milwaukee, telling a young pitcher to hit Andrew McCutchen. It took the kid three pitches to actually land one, and that's exactly what set Cutch off. The benches cleared, Jason Heyward came sprinting in, and the pitcher got tossed.

Why This Matters

There's an unwritten code for retaliation, and McCutchen's beef wasn't with getting hit. It was the sloppy execution. Open with a strike, miss with a fastball, then finally connect on pitch three, and a hitter who's already standing off the plate feels jerked around. Cutch even reached out to Jomboy afterward to confirm his exact words: 'there you go, you finally did it.' That's a veteran explaining old-school etiquette. If you're going to hit me, do it on the first pitch and own it. The Cubs pitcher caught a three-game suspension for the intent. The Brewers, who'd hit a pile of Cubs hitters all weekend, walked away clean. That asymmetry is part of why this one stuck with people.

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Key Moments

Who / What Is Involved

Players: Willson Contreras. Teams: Brewers, Cubs.

Key Terms Mentioned

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the Brewers and cubs spent opening

weekend just hitting each other with

pitches just getting hit hitting each

other on accident on purpose all kinds

of hit by pitches this breakdown is