Cincinnati closer Aroldis Chapman has been struggling lately nailing things down in the ninth inning so when he was finally able to preserve a 4-3 win over the Brewers Tuesday night he celebrated in a pretty bizarre way.
After striking out Martin Maldonado to end the game, Chapman went on to do not one but TWO somersaults.
The Brewers obviously weren’t too happy seeing this with Milwaukee third baseman Taylor Green saying “…two somersaults? That’s tough…”
Chapman’s teammates however seemed a little more irked by his actions especially coming after starter Bronson Arroyo’s no-hit bid was broken up in the 8th inning. Jon Paul Morosi of Fox Sports reports that Joey Votto and Jay Bruce spoke with Chapman after the game while manager Dusty Baker voiced his opposition after learning about the incident post-tumble.
“I talked to Bronson (Arroyo) on the way in and he said, ‘You didn’t see that?'” Baker said. “I turned to the guys and said, ‘Way to go.’ The next thing I looked on the board and saw (Chapman) rolling around. That’s something Bryan [Price, Cincinnati’s pitching coach] has addressed. I know [Chapman] was happy, especially after the bad week he had last week, but that’s something — we don’t play like that.”
Sure almost every closer in the game has their own antic whether it’s Brian Wilson’s X or Jose Valverde’s dancing but you have to admit this was pretty lame. Hopefully though the Brewers don’t take too much of an exception to this and target the big hitters for the Reds in the series finale Thursday night.
Ref: Yahoo! Sports, FOX Sports
