CINCINNATI — There are several verbs the Cardinals would choose to describe how their catchers interact with umpires to, well, shape the strike zone — lobbying leaps to mind, frame, persuade, maybe a little cajoling — and none of them are the one Dodgers infielder Max Muncy chose for his view of the umpires this past weekend in St. Louis.
“I felt like they were getting bullied,” he said Sunday to reporters in the visitors’ clubhouse at Busch Stadium. “And they gave into it.”
There is another way to describe what Muncy suggested.
The Cardinals' catchers were doing their jobs.