After a cheating scandal that shocked the baseball world, the Houston Astros are going to be the target of plenty of criticism and jokes during the MLB season, and Chicago Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo joined in during a nationally televised game Monday.
While batting in the third inning against the Los Angeles Angels, a mic’d up Rizzo was trying to figure out what pitch he was going to face.
“I’m doing some math in my head about where he is going to throw,” Rizzo joked.
When asked by broadcaster Jessica Mendoza what he had come up with, Rizzo admitted he had “no idea,” and then dropped a clever reference to the Astros’ cheating scandal.
“Someone bang for me,” he said:
The comment was in reference to the system the Astros set up to tip off their batters to pitches during the 2017 season. When an offspeed pitch was coming, a player in the Astros’ bullpen would bang on a trash can to give the hitter a heads-up on the pitch.
Top Cubs Stories From NBC 5 Sports
After an investigation, former Astros manager AJ Hinch was suspended for a year and then was fired by the team. Former G.M. Jeff Luhnow was also suspended for a year and was fired by the team. Former New York Mets manager Carlos Beltran and former Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora were also unseated in the aftermath of the investigation.
