Joe Maddon was not happy with Willson Contreras‘ showboating on Sunday.
The Cubs catcher blasted a shot to center in the bottom of the fifth inning against the Cincinnati Reds and admired his handiwork — for a while. The only problem was the ball didn’t leave the yard and once it hit the wall Contreras had to scramble to get a double. Had the throw to second been more accurate he probably would have been out.
“Horrible,” Maddon said after the 2-1 loss. “I didn’t like that at all. That will be addressed. The whole team didn’t like that.””
Said Contreras: “I thought it was gone. I hit it super good. What I did was not good for baseball, watching it. I embarrassed myself.”
Contreras said he apologized to Reds pitcher Luis Castillo after the incident.
“I said, ‘That was my fault, I shouldn’t do that,'” Contreras said. “He’s a nice guy and the next time I get to see him personally, I will talk to him about it. I think there’s no hard feelings.”
Contreras has struggled in the second half of the season. He is batting .225 with two homers and 17 RBIs since the break. His last home run was on Aug. 1.
The Associated Press contributed to this report