Dodgers and Giants games are always intense, but this week things got really heated. Over three games, a bad moment turned into a story about revenge.

“It probably was [intentional] and, for me, [Rushing] said what he said. I don’t think he meant it too personally. But they see it. Social media catches it.” Dave Roberts addressed the allegations toward the Dodgers’ catcher after the third game.

Dalton Rushing was supposedly engaged in a “dirty play” following an HBP from Logan Webb. But the Dodgers manager simply saw it as “good baseball.”

It all started in the bottom of the sixth of the Dodgers’ first game against San Francisco on April 21. The Giants were leading 3-1 when Jung Hoo Lee tried to make it home from first base. He was thrown out before he could make it to the plate and was seen remaining on the ground for a while after the decision. There was a lot of pain and anger written all over his face. 

It appeared that Lee’s aggressive dive aggravated his pre-existing quad injury. But what drew the attention of the Giants fans was how Dodgers catcher Dalton Rushing said something while leaving the field as the inning was over. According to many, Rushing was seen mouthing “F— ‘em” while walking towards the dugout.

Fast forward to April 23, Rushing was on the plate while the Dodgers were leading 3-0. Giants Logan Webb threw a 93 mph fastball that hit him at the side of the ribs. Rushing walked to first base, thanks to the HBP. But many Dodgers loyalists saw it as an intentional hit, as if the Giants ace wanted to take revenge for his teammate.

Rushing did not complain about getting hit. “If it was intentional, I’ll take it. I’ll take what I deserve.”

Three pitches later, Dalton Rushing tried to make it to second base through an old-school slide that ended up in a collision with shortstop Willy Adames. The umpire called it an illegal slide as there was an attempt to break up the play, and he was charged with a batter-runner out. The glares from the San Francisco players at Rushing implied clear discontent. 

A huge part of the baseball community saw Webb’s HBP as retaliation for his teammate. On the other hand, Giants infielder Luis Arráez saw the slide as “dirty.”

“For me, that’s not good baseball. It’s not clean baseball,” Arráez said. 

But the Dodgers manager saw it differently.

“I liked the way [Rushing] went in hard. It’s nothing against Adames, and they turned a double play. It’s good baseball. Good, hard-nosed baseball,” Roberts said after they ended their first series loss with a 3-0 win.

He embraced the incident as part of baseball, as he didn’t see any shady attempt to soil the game. Roberts knows his players, and he knows Rushing better than to throw verbal abuse at another player’s injury. The manager simply spelled it out as he saw it, and he did that without throwing shade at the opponents. 

While Dave Roberts addressed the entire incident directly, one San Francisco player tried to play around it. 

Logan Webb offers routine explanation while the Dodgers frame the bigger picture

After the third game, the 29-year-old Giants pitcher was asked if his HBP was an intentional response to what happened with Jung Hoo Lee in the first game of the series. Instead of telling the truth, the Giants pitcher played innocent.

“What thing with Jung Hoo?” Webb asked with a smirk. “I didn’t see that.”

The internet wasn’t so gullible to blindly take his words as one fan said, “This is literally the most ‘I am preparing to lie’ face I have ever seen.” Some people are convinced that the HBP was Logan’s way to respond in kind.

The interviewers mentioned his pitch hitting the catcher, who supposedly offered slurs to Webb’s injured teammate. He nonchalantly stated that he was simply trying to get “fastball inside.”

Now that is a direct contrast to what we saw from the Dodgers. And this is exactly what Dave Roberts was referring to when he said, “They’re going to hit you. Webby’s got really good command. I get it. They’ll deny it. No problem.”

Even Dalton Rushing gave a straightforward answer when he was notified of how people were reacting to what he said following Lee’s injury in the first game.  

“I don’t really care. I play the game hard, and I play with fire, Rushing told reporters on Wednesday. “There’s no direction towards him or anything. I just think some people make something out of nothing.”

In the end, the whole sequence happens to be a little more than a difference of opinion. While the Dodgers had a much more straightforward approach, Logan Webb tried to deflect the entire thing and normalize it. 

This week proved that the Dodgers and Giants still have a fierce rivalry. But when it was all over, the Dodgers were still at the top of their division, while the Giants remained stuck near the bottom.