The Brewers and Cubs kicked off the season by plunking each other in nearly every way possible. Cubs catcher Willson Contreras got hit twice, continuing a pattern where Milwaukee pitchers always seem to find him. Christian Yelich got clipped on the foot by a backdoor slider. Brewers batters got hit too, including Madris and Ian Happ, who took a brutal shot to the knee and crumpled in pain. After enough of their hitters were bruised, the Cubs decided it was time to retaliate.
They brought in a young pitcher and made it clear he needed to hit Andrew McCutchen. McCutchen stood ready, clearly aware it was coming, but the pitcher opened with a pitch in the zone. He tried again and missed, which made McCutchen laugh. On the third try, he finally got him. McCutchen wasn’t mad about getting hit. He was mad it took three tries. He told the pitcher, “Do it the first time.” His issue was with the sequence—starting with a normal pitch tells the batter to relax, and then hitting them feels sneaky and more dangerous. He’d rather pitchers be up front and get it over with.
Jason Heyward charged in after the plunking to make a statement, but things didn’t escalate from there. The umpires huddled and decided to eject the Cubs pitcher, who seemed resigned and disappointed, saying the coaches made him do it. He was suspended three games. The Brewers, who had hit multiple Cubs already, didn’t face discipline. McCutchen’s stance was simple—if a team wants to retaliate, fine, but don’t play games with it. Hit the guy clean and be done with it.