SAN FRANCISCO — The Dodgers concluded a peaceful if unsuccessful game here Tuesday, and then the waves hit: On social media, catcher Dalton Rushing had become the newest enemy among San Francisco Giants fans.
In the sixth inning of Tuesday’s game, Rushing tagged out Jung Hoo Lee at home plate to end the inning. Lee, who had tried to step around Rushing and then reach behind him to tag the plate, then slid awkwardly and sat up in discomfort.
Television cameras caught Rushing, who had walked toward the Dodgers’ dugout, looking back toward Lee, shrugging and saying something.
The Bay Area news site SF Gate said Rushing was “crudely dismissing the injury with an NSFW phrase,” with the first word a four-letter expletive. Rushing said Wednesday he said nothing disparaging toward Lee.
Lee left Tuesday’s game at that point, with what the Giants listed as a quadriceps injury, but he was in the Giants’ starting lineup Wednesday. In an indication this might not be a crisis after all, neither Dodgers manager Dave Roberts and Giants manager Tony Vitello was asked about it during their respective pregame interview sessions Wednesday.
Rushing was not in the Dodgers’ starting lineup Wednesday but is expected to be Thursday, and he said he planned to check in with Lee to ensure he was not seriously hurt. Rushing said he already had checked with Lee’s South Korean countryman, Dodgers infielder Hyeseong Kim.
“To make sure he was OK. That’s the biggest thing,” Rushing said. “That’s the only thing that matters. Hopefully, he did not take it the way it was put out. I’ll be sure to say something to him face-to-face (Thursday), making sure he’s OK. There was nothing really directed at him. He’s a great guy.”
Rushing said he was unaware Lee was hurt.
“No, I thought it was just a weird slide,” Rushing said. “As long as he’s OK and he doesn’t think that I’m coming at him or any of those guys over there, that’s the biggest thing for me. I don’t care what other people put out there or say. I was just trying to play the game, play the game hard.”
Rushing said he was not frustrated with Lee.
“It was kind of an awkward slide, and that’s all it was,” Rushing said. “There wasn’t anything else added to it.”
If he was not frustrated with Lee, was he frustrated with himself? No, he said.
“I play with fire,” Rushing said. “Everybody that has ever played with me, everyone that has watched me play, knows that. Whatever people want to make of it, I hope it’s not negative. I just hope he’s OK.”
Rushing declined to say exactly what the cameras caught him saying.
“I used a word, but it was not what was said that was said. I’ll just leave it at that. There was no direction towards him.
“I just think some people make something out of nothing.”
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