The season is still young, but we have our first controversy over the unwritten rules. On Tuesday during a match between San Diego Padres And San Francisco Giants, the Giants took the lead early on, by nine runs leading into the bottom of the second half. They haven’t finished recording yet.
Fast-forward to the bottom of the sixth inning: Mauricio Dupont hit one shot while the Giants were still nine games ahead. The Padres were clearly not happy with the decision to defeat. San Diego manager Bob Melvin had some words for Dupont, as he did Eric Hosmer.
“I definitely told him how I felt, how we felt about it,” Hosmer said. “He said it was a sign their staff gave him. I just told him I think you have to be a little smarter in this situation. I’ve played professional football for a long period of time obviously if you are at that level. You have to be smarter than that.”
The giants had a different opinion on this. Here’s what Giants manager Gabi Kapler had to say:
“Our goal is not just to win one game in a series. It’s to try to win the whole group. Sometimes, that means trying to go a little deeper into the opponent’s pen. I understand that many teams don’t like this strategy. And I understand why. It’s something we talked about as a club before the season. And that we feel good going forward with this strategy. It’s not disrespectful in any way. It’s because we feel comfortable and strategic. It’s the best. A way to win a series. When I say cool, I mean calm down. We’re not sentimental about it. We don’t try to hurt anyone.
Dupont also defended himself, saying, “I’m not trying to disrespect anyone. We’re just trying to win a streak. And that means keep marching until we can burn guns. That’s it. I’m not trying to disrespect anyone.”
The Giants still scored four more runs after the hit hit and went on to win, 13-2.
CBS Sports incorrectly stated that the running differential is one of the tie-breaking tools that the MLB will use in place of Game 163 in the 2022 season in the initial version of this story. Running teams have been discussed as a tiebreaker, but that rule didn’t make it into the new CBA. The five tiebreakers used by MLB this season are the head-to-head records, the forking record, the splitting record, the last half of Intraleague games, the last half of Intraleague games, plus one until the tiebreaker. We apologize for the error.
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