Miles Mikolas’ start against the Chicago Cubs didn’t even last a complete half inning thanks to some truly bizarre first inning shenanigans.
On Thursday, the St. Louis Cardinals were hosting the Cubs with Mikolas on the pitcher’s mound to start the game. Mikolas made it through two outs relatively easily before complete chaos ensued.
First, catcher Willson Contreras left the game after being hit in the head by Ian Happ’s errant backswing. Contreras was bleeding from his head when he left, but Happ and the Cardinals catcher seemed to make amends as he was escorted off the field.
MORE: Every MLB stadium, ranked worst to best
Mikolas’ next pitch, however, is when things got dicey. Mikolas threw a fastball that went up and in on Happ, missing the Cubs outfielder. Then on the next pitch, Mikolas hit Happ on the backside with another fastball, which then earned the Cardinals pitcher an ejection after an umpire conference. Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol even got ejected as well arguing the call!
Here’s how the whole bizarre sequence went down, starting with Happ’s backswing hit on Contreras.
Ian Happ hit Willson Contreras on a backswing and Contreras was removed from the game
Two pitches later, Miles Mikolas hit Happ with a pitch. Mikolas and Oli Marmol were ejected from the game pic.twitter.com/vP3LgdRn3X
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) July 28, 2023
Definitely one of the more weird situations we’ve seen in baseball this year. All at the top of the first, no less!
MLB fans were completely divided over the incident on Twitter. Was it wrong that Mikolas was given no warning for hitting Happ? Was Happ’s backswing that hit Contreras intentional? Here’s what Twitter had to say about the whole affair.