LOS ANGELES -- In the sixth inning of Saturday’s game against the Padres, Dodgers starter Trevor Bauer gave up a home run to Fernando Tatis Jr. -- his second of the game -- on a slider that was well off the plate.
After the homer, Tatis did the Connor McGregor-like strut that Bauer has resurfaced on the mound. Bauer applauded Tatis and the rest of the Padres team for the trolling, saying that he thinks baseball needs more of those emotions, not less.
But a day later, there’s one moment of that sixth inning at-bat that might’ve rubbed the Dodgers the wrong way. A fan tweeted a video of Tatis’ second homer off Bauer that purported to show Tatis peeking at catcher Will Smith’s sign before the pitch. Bauer broke the at-bat down on his video blog.
“That’s the type of stuff that would get you hit in other games,” Bauer said. “Now, I’m mild mannered about it. Flip the bat, do all that stuff, fine. If you’re going to look at the signs, not OK, and if you do it again, the team that you’re playing probably isn’t going to take too kindly, and there might have to be some on-field stuff.
“That is disrespecting your opponent, look at their signs, stuff like that. Whereas the bat flips and celebrating with your teammates is fine, in my opinion.”
The Padres’ pregame player and manager availability took place before manager Dave Roberts and Bauer commented on the matter. No Padres were available to comment initially, because they were on field taking batting practice and then preparing to play Sunday’s game. But team sources told MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell that the Padres emphatically denied Tatis was peeking at the sign. Freeze any video at just the right moment, they said, and you can make it look a certain way.
After the game – a wild 11-inning thriller – Eric Hosmer addressed the matter, confirming the Padres’ belief.
“That was maybe a little bit of confusion on their part,” Hosmer said. “I don’t think Tati was looking at signs. I’ve never really seen him do that. I certainly didn’t see it last night.”
Bauer, who has no issues taking to Twitter to reach out to his peers, tweeted at Tatis, telling him to “ask daddy nicely” if he needed to get the sign that badly. Tatis quickly responded with a photoshopped photo of himself holding a baby with Bauer’s face on it. The tweet read, “tranquilo hijo” which translated to “take it easy, my son” in Spanish.
Roberts was also asked about the issue before Sunday’s series finale against the Padres. Initially, Roberts didn’t know about the video that was circulating on social media. But Roberts said that if Tatis did indeed peek to get the sign, the Dodgers will certainly have an issue with the Padres shortstop.
“When you talk about peeking, that’s just not the way you play baseball,” Roberts said. “If that is the case, which I don’t know, that’ll be noted.”
The Padres insist it’s not the case. The two teams won’t meet again until June.