Dalton Rushing, the Los Angeles Dodgers backup catcher, was hit by a pitch in the series finale on Thursday, two days after internet lip-readers claimed he’d said “f— ’em” after turning around and seeing San Francisco Giants outfielder Jung Hoo Lee lying at the plate with an apparent injury.
Logan Webb delivered the pitch in the sixth inning, a 1-0 fastball that followed another inside fastball, two of the just 12 he threw out of 98 pitches overall. Afterward, Webb professed not to know about Rushing and the video and said, “Just a fastball inside.” He was not altogether convincing, and he had hit only one other batter this season in his previous 30 innings pitched entering his start on Thursday.
After the game, Rushing commented, “It’s fine. I like getting on base. Whatever works. If it was intentional, I’ll take it. I’ll take what I deserve. I’ve cleared the air with all of that. I’ve made sure Jung Hoo is good and healthy. Whatever happened, happened.”
The same inning, after taking his base, Rushing made himself even less liked in the Giants’ clubhouse with a slide into second base that appeared to be directed less at the bag and more into shortstop Willy Adames making the turn on the double play. Rushing barreled right into Adames’ midsection, going to the right of the bag to do so.
“The umpire said it was a double play because he slid into Willy’s feet, and for me, that’s not good baseball,” second baseman Luis Arraez said. “It’s not clean baseball there. Thank God Willy is good and we made the double play.”
Asked whether he thought it was a dirty play, Arraez said, “For me, it’s dirty. But for me, this is baseball.”
Rushing defended himself against this latest accusation, saying postgame, “I was taught that in college. That’s kind of the way you go in, especially when you have a speedster like that with (Dodgers infielder) Hyeseong (Kim) behind me. You’re not going four or five feet outside the bag. You stay within the body length and try to break up a double play. Nothing against any of those guys right there.”
On Wednesday, Rushing told the Chronicle and several L.A. reporters that he had not said that about Lee the day before and he had immediately asked about how Lee was doing. Asked what exactly he had said, Rushing was not specific, responding, “I used a word, but it was not what it said.”
The Giants haven’t been afraid to send messages from the mound this year. Last week, Landen Roupp hit Reds outfielder Spencer Steer with a first-pitch fastball in Cincinnati after Steer had a timeout-related tiff with Giants reliever JT Brubaker the previous night. Roupp denied it was intentional even less believably than did Webb on Thursday.
The Dodgers and Giants next meet May 11-14 for a four-game series at Los Angeles.