By the time the verbal dust appeared to settle Tuesday after the Willson Contreras-Tyler Flowers flap Monday night, three more games remained this week between potential playoff combatants.
Aside from Cubs manager Joe Maddon wanting to make sure his catcher, Contreras, was in good standing with umpires, the Cubs said they had no lingering issues and didn’t expect any emotional heat to carry over with the National League East-leading Braves.
“To me it should be the end of this,” said Contreras, who seemed – if anything – to use the “heat of the moment” Monday as fuel into Tuesday.
Contreras drew a walk in his first trip to the plate Tuesday and eventually was thrown out at third on an aggressive play after a bunt attempt. He also pounced on a roller on the third-base line instead of allowing it to go foul in the third inning and whirled for a strong, off-balance throw to get Josh Donaldson by a step.
He then drove a go-ahead double into the left-field corner for two runs in the fourth.
Contreras said he had no intention of saying anything to Flowers, the Braves catcher Monday, after the two faced off in an F-bomb exchange after his second-inning homer that resulted in benches and bullpens emptying briefly onto the field.
“If he wants to keep going with the same thing, we’ll see what happens, but I’m not looking for that,” said Contreras, who still seemed irritated and mystified that Flowers would say anything at all from behind his mask while Contreras said something to the umpire about a strike call in his at-bat and one that he believed the ump missed in teammate Kyle Schwarber’s earlier at-bat.
“[Flowers] said something like `You’re getting those calls, too; you fooled him with a backup cutter,’ “ Contreras said. “And I said, `I’m not talking to you.’ I don’t know if there’s other catchers that jump into batter and umpire conversations. I haven’t heard of [any]. I don’t do that. I respect that there’s space between umpires and batters.”
Kimbrel on tap?
Closer Craig Kimbrel was to pitch one inning for Class AAA Iowa on Tuesday night in what was expected to be his final minor-league outing before joining the Cubs bullpen.
Kimbrel, who signed as a free agent three weeks ago, had made three previous appearances for the I-Cubs during his spring-like preparation, including back-to-back games Saturday and Sunday.
“Tuesday is an important checkpoint for him,” team president Theo Epstein said. “We’ll see how he’s feeling and then get together with him and make a call after that game and see which direction we go. There’s certainly a chance towards the very end of this homestand or early in the road trip that we could see him.”
Maddon said he doesn’t plan to use Kimbrel for more than three-out save situations until at least the end of the season in games with more direct playoff implications.
“I also believe this bullpen with the experience we’ve gotten to this point should permit us to avoid that by being able to absorb the eighth inning well,” Maddon said.
Hendricks update
Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks (sore shoulder), who threw lightly off a mound for a few minutes Monday, has a full bullpen scheduled Tuesday.
Barring a setback that keeps the right-hander on pace for a possible return from the injured list near the All-Star break, Epstein said.
