Just after San Francisco Giants star Jung Hoo Lee apparently hurt himself in a play at home plate, NBC Sports Bay Area cameras caught Dodgers catcher Dalton Rushing crudely dismissing the injury with an NSFW phrase.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, Lee came up to the plate with two outs when it briefly started pouring rain at Oracle Park during his at-bat. Lee hit a single to bring up Heliot Ramos, who proceeded to work his at-bat to a full-count as it continued to rain intermittently. With Lee running on the pitch, Ramos hit a bloop single to center field.
Dodgers center fielder Alex Call didn’t appear to hustle to field the ball and lazily threw it to second baseman Alex Freeland as Lee raced around the diamond, getting a surprise send home by third base coach Hector Borg.
Freeland’s throw to Rushing beat Lee by a few steps and led the Giant to try a late slide to the plate. That was to no avail, and Rushing’s tag meant Lee was out, but the outfielder appeared to have his left leg stretch back in an awkward fashion.
After the play, Lee sat up and stayed on the dirt for several seconds in some semblance of pain. But NBC Sports Bay Area flipped its broadcast to show Rushing returning to the Los Angeles dugout. As he walked back, the catcher turned to look at Lee, then looked back at the dugout and appeared to say, “F—k him.”
The broadcast went to a commercial break from there. Lee stayed in the game and played in right field for the seventh inning, but was removed from the game in the eighth inning for Jerar Encarnacion. The Giants didn’t say what the injury was to Lee before they finished off the 3-1 win over the Dodgers.
It’s not likely the Giants saw Rushing’s dismissive comment about Lee during the game. But if they see it overnight, Game 2 of the three-game series at 6:40 p.m. on Wednesday could get really interesting.