Padres manager calls out Cubs' Anthony Rizzo on collision

[Boris13c]

Padres manager calls out Cubs' Anthony Rizzo after home plate collision with Austin Hedges

San Diego Padres manager Andy Green did little to conceal his feelings about the home-plate collision that knocked Austin Hedges out of Monday night's 3-2 loss to the Chicago Cubs, calling Anthony Rizzo's hit on the Padres catcher "a cheap shot" in his postgame news conference.

"I think you look at that play and it's a fairly egregious violation of the rule,'' Green said. "The rule exists to protect the catcher. The safety of the catcher is more in jeopardy now when you have the rule to protect you because you're not expecting to get hit when you give a guy a plate like that.

"That's a cheap shot. I'm not saying he's a dirty player at all -- nobody is saying that -- but he clearly deviated from his path to hit our catcher, took our catcher out. Rule exists to protect him. It's a disheartening play to see come about like that.''

Under rule 7.13, introduced in 2014, a runner may not run out of direct line to the plate to initiate contact with the fielder, meaning the runner can't go out of his way to plow through the catcher.

Rizzo was attempting to score from third base on a lineout to center field by Kris Bryant in the bottom of the sixth when he slammed into Hedges. Rizzo's left shoulder caught Hedges square in the right thigh and midsection and the San Diego catcher fell over backward, holding onto the ball for an inning-ending double play.

Hedges remained on his knees for several moments before slowly getting to his feet and leaving the game with a bruised thigh. He was replaced by Luis Torrens.

[UOK]

Rizzo will probably get plunked in the skull before today's game is done.

[Otis Day]

So it was against the rules, but no punishment? What are rules for?

I thought it was against the rules when I saw it. He seemed to go more toward catcher than home plate.