Amir Garrett screams at Rizzo after striking him out, a breakdown
What Happened
In the top of the eighth inning of a close game between the Chicago Cubs and the Cincinnati Reds, relief pitcher Amir Garrett of the Reds enters the game with his team trailing 3-2. Garrett, who has struggled early in the season, steps onto the mound and immediately walks towards Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo in an unusual move. The two players have history, as in 2018, Garrett struck out Cubs infielder Javy Báez and then shouted at him, leading to a confrontation between the players. This time, Garrett delivers an overpowering fastball to Rizzo and after the strikeout, he stares him down and appears to taunt the Cubs slugger. "I'm right here, [expletive]," Garrett says as he celebrates the big out. Rizzo, who was the first to defend Báez in the previous incident, remains calm and simply walks away from the confrontation. However, Báez is now the first one to rush out and confront Garrett, yelling "F*** you!" at the Reds pitcher. Reds pitching coach Andrew Chafin also becomes animated, seemingly trying to calm Garrett down, but the pitcher continues to gesture and shout, proclaiming "I'm bad, I'm bad!" Despite the theatrics, the inning is not yet over and Garrett must refocus to finish the frame. The score remains 3-2 in favor of the Cubs as the Reds look to mount a comeback. Garrett's emotional outburst, while entertaining, may have been ill-timed given the close nature of the game and his team's deficit. The history between these players and Garrett's brash persona have once again sparked a heated exchange on the field.
Full Transcript
Click timestamps to jump to that momentit's the seas versus the seas and the
cubs are up
three to two in the top of the eighth
inning amir garrett comes into pitch
having a rough start to the season
looking to
right the ship gives his hat a little
kiss puts it on his head
then he walks towards the batter rizzo
which is
odd does he say anything we don't know
they do
have history in 2018 garrett struck out
javi baez then screamed at him then said
you know you know you know
and then baez was like okay why are you
talking i like talking do you wanna talk
to each other
and then rizzo you can see here rizzo
was the one that got out
and stood up for hobby and got as close
to amir as the first one there
so that's kind of the history the other
history is that amir garrett
is a self-proclaimed uh bad mfer and
he'll let you know
every step of the way that that's what
he sees himself as
so really nice pitch fastball he loves
it shaking his head 0-1
another fastball 97 miles per hour loves
it again
liked it so much he was kind of like
staring rizzo down
like yeah you liked that [ __ ] and then
he dropped the ball but he scooped it up
kicked some dirt shrugged his shoulders
feels good
back to it oh to pitch thinks he gets
some nope
fouled it off the o2 again in the dirt
and then
nasty slider gets rizzo striking out and
lets him know
that's what's up i'm right here [ __ ]
man there's a difference between
celebrating yourself
and taunting and antagonizing the
opponent
and i think this is the latter not the
former but i think amir thinks it's the
former not the latter
but it's really weird i don't know
like yeah i love emotion and all that
but like you just struck a dude out in
the game you're losing in a season
you're not performing well and
called him i don't know i don't get it
rizzo didn't even really care this
almost like hey stay stay stay
stay oh [ __ ] they're not staying i'm
just gonna get out of the way
and now this time javi is the first one
out
going after garrett because you're just
trading being good teammates rizzo was
the first one out for him
now hobbies the first one up for him and
go [ __ ] you
[ __ ] you oh my god look at this we got
andrew chaffin doing his best vada
sultan plus his uncle
impression looking real tasty i'm bad
i'm bad
i'm bad i'm bad and then he's telling
his coach his coach is probably like hey
calm down and
tell his coach like hey i needed this
let me do my thing i'm bad
he's like all right okay it's like much
to do about
nothing at all they're laughing the
inning wasn't even over
he still got a pitch it wasn't even an
inning ending strikeout
and they're losing the game i don't know
man i don't know
i love emotion i like celebrating seems
real weird to [ __ ] your opponent
in the game you're losing when it's just
one strikeout but that's just me inning
ending strikeout to preserve the lead in
a big spot
scream all you want but that's that's my
opinion that's what happened