CHICAGO — Raindrops falling in the infield Sunday afternoon didn’t quite reach the level of Lake Michigan at Wrigley Field, but nonetheless drenched the Los Angeles Dodgers during an 8-1 loss to the Chicago Cubs. By the time the tarp finally hit the field midway through the fourth inning, Miguel Rojas’ frustration had already erupted.
The veteran infielder, who had made an error just before the stoppage and slipped out of the batter’s box an inning earlier, spoke directly to the group of umpires once the stoppage was reached, expressing his disgust at how long it took and what he said. Safety risks due to “poor” pitch conditions during rainy first innings.
“I’m playing in a puddle,” Rojas said. “Everyone can see it. These are not the best conditions. I slipped at home plate. Something could have happened, not just to me but to anyone on the team. Not just in our team. We are talking about players. We have to take care of each other, and I feel like sometimes just throwing the game, five innings, is not the right way to do it.
The Dodgers’ infield defense looked like a sloppy mess before the shutdown. Ian Happ’s chopper to lead off the bottom of the first inning took a bad swing and hit Freddie Freeman at first base. Nico Hoerner’s ground ball stuck and rolled under Mookie Betts’ glove to shortstop two innings later. And after a mid-inning stop to apply a Quick Dry solution (which was undone by the rain that continued to fall), Rojas missed on a pitch that bounced into a puddle near first base and allowed a point to come home and made the score 6. -0, Chicago.
Rojas, making his first start at third base since 2020, did not blame the wet conditions for the error. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts rejected the idea that the wet field was the cause of the club’s three errors in four innings.
But Rojas was still furious anyway, expressing those frustrations hours later, after all nine rounds were completed (and after a delay of two hours and 51 minutes).
The veteran said he talked throughout the first innings with third base umpire Mike Estabrook about the state of play. Rain had been falling since the start of Sunday’s game, and both clubs’ upcoming schedules presented few opportunities and joint off days for a make-up game if they failed to complete nine innings. Estabrook, Rojas said, told him they were “trying to get the game in,” moving the game to at least five innings so it could be official and not have to be suspended until a later date.
“We all understand,” Rojas said. “We’ve been playing baseball for a long time and we understand the business side of it. We’re trying to get in a game, because we’re getting out of here and we’re not playing another game here in Chicago. We’re not just trying to compete in this game. We’re trying to play 162 games, get through the season and be strong later in the year.
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Several Dodgers echoed concerns about the condition of the field, saying it was “not good” and noting puddles throughout the infield. They were miffed that they stopped play for nearly 10 minutes without delay to apply the drying agent to the infield, interrupting reliever Gus Varland’s outing after two batters and forcing the right-hander to continue warming up. -throws to stay loose. This angered Roberts one inning after he stopped Cubs left-hander Shota Imanaga between innings to work on the mound.
“I think everyone agreed that we wanted to try to do five, knowing that the conditions weren’t going to be ideal,” Roberts said. “I just didn’t like, in that fourth inning, stopping the game there, when we had already faced a few batters. And then obviously the pitch became sort of unplayable.
The delay, Rojas argued, should have started much earlier.
“No one wants to sit here for two hours and have a rain delay that long anyway, but that’s our job,” Rojas said. “We have nowhere to go. Anyway, we were going to be here until 7 p.m. and we’re going to get to Minnesota tomorrow and we’re going to play another baseball game. It would have been the same thing. Just call the match a little earlier so they can work on the pitch later. »
The field appeared to be in much better shape after the delay, and the Cubs and Dodgers were able to finish out the remainder of the game without issue. As the Dodgers’ bus boarded their flight to Minneapolis, the rain began to fall again.
“Today was just one of those games that we just want to wash away,” Roberts said.
They don’t have to look far to find water.
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(Photo: Michael Reaves/Getty Images)