Cardinals’ Mikolas, Marmol suspended after Thursday’s beanball accusation
Mikolas will appeal his suspension, while Marmol will serve his one-game suspension on Friday night.
ST. LOUIS (KMOV) - The fallout from Thursday’s chaotic top of the first inning between the Cardinals and Cubs continued Friday afternoon when Major League Baseball announced suspensions for Cardinals personnel.
Cardinals starting pitcher Miles Mikolas has been suspended five games, while manager Oli Marmol was tagged with a one-game suspension. Mikolas will appeal, while Marmol will serve his suspension Friday. Bench coach Joe McEwing will manage the Cardinals Friday in Marmol’s stead.
Mikolas went inside on Ian Happ on consecutive pitches in Thursday’s first inning, hitting Happ in the backside with a 94-mph fastball on the second one. This came following Happ inadvertently whacking Willson Contreras when he lost control of his backswing on a swing-and-miss, clocking the Cardinal catcher in the head to cause a scalp laceration and substantial bleeding.
Contreras passed concussion testing and is back in the lineup Friday as the St. Louis designated hitter.
Mikolas denied any intent in plunking Happ with the pitch, insisting that he was merely aiming to pitch aggressively inside against the Cubs’ left-handed hitter.
“I could show you the scouting report in my locker,” Mikolas said after Thursday’s game. “I throw inside to a lot of guys. I threw one inside and it hit him. There was no warning. The umpires can believe whatever they want to believe. They had a meeting and that was their choice.”
“They believed there was intent there. That’s all the reasoning that umpires need.”
Earlier this month, Mikolas was forced from a game despite a low pitch count due to a weather-related suspension, which is relevant to this present situation because Mikolas later returned to the mound on short rest for St. Louis. It stands to reason that after tossing just 14 pitches Thursday, Mikolas could conceivably appeal his suspension long enough to make another quick return to the mound before then dropping his appeal with Major League Baseball thereafter.
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