Trevor Bauer didn’t just let his pitching do the talking on Wednesday night
Bauer’s much-anticipated matchup with Yu Darvish ended in a Cincinnati Reds 3-0 victory, and an elite start from the NL Cy Young award candidate. The Reds remain on the outside looking in on the National League playoff spectrum, but that’s of no fault of Bauer, who is 4-3 on the season with a minuscule ERA of 1.74 after Wednesday night’s performance, in which he likely leap-frogged his competitor Yu Darvish head-to-head.
The Cubs, despite being shut out by Bauer for 7.1 innings, still found a way to chirp at the right-hander in the later innings, prompted by a couple of hit batsmen.
Bauer wasn’t a fan of the Cubs firing shots in his direction
We have ourselves a good, old-fashioned NL Central rivalry, and with the Reds clawing their way back into the playoff race (or so they hope), these two haven’t seen the last of each other just yet.
When Bauer was pulled from his start in the eighth, he claims they Cubs hitters were waving him goodbye. This is relatively understandable, given his pitching performance to that point in the game. Surely Chicago would rather face the Reds bullpen than Bauer.
“It’s kind of funny, I’ve got to give them props,” Bauer said, per the Cincinnati Enquirer. “They actually chirped all night and yelled at me all night. Normally when they get behind, they shut up real quick.”
But, as Bauer would outline for the media, these Cubs don’t back down easily.
“I mean, even when I got taken out, they’re yelling ‘bye’ at me. I gave them a nice little wave and some other stuff because it was impressive that you can chirp at someone after he shoved it up your (butt) for 7 2/3 innings. So props to them on that,” Bauer continued.
Bauer’s personality is among the more polarizing in the game today. You either love him or hate him, but he’s always must-see TV.