Miami Marlins rookie pitcher Jose Fernandez put an exclamation point on a hell of a debut season last night, as the second-worst team in baseball defeated the second-best 5-2. With the win, Fernandez moved to 12-6 on the season, with a 2.19 ERA and 187 strikeouts in 172.2 innings pitched. A lot of people think that the 21-year old is the clear cut NL Rookie of the Year, and they’re probably right, because the guy has been phenomenal for a horrible team.
But the more important thing that happened last night was that Fernandez hit his first MLB home run, and that led to the benches clearing because of a number of things that happened earlier in the game. So why don’t we go to the video right now and try to determine who the real culprit is in last night’s debacle between two teams that shouldn’t give a crap about each other right now.
[mlbvideo id=”30539127″ width=”650″ height=”390″ /]
I’ve enjoyed watching Fernandez pitch this season, because he’s a talented, young pitcher and I like to joke that I look forward to his future as [insert big market team name here], but he is certainly also a confident young man. As such, he has also been a very chirpy guy when he’s winning, reminding me a lot of a younger Carlos Zambrano in the way he has his friends and enemies.
With that said, based on the above video from last night’s game, I have the following questions:
– Is anyone actually keeping track of baseball’s unwritten rules? Or are sports writers and losing teams just making them up as they go along? The kid hit his first home run and stared. Big deal.
– Was Fernandez watching his dinger any different than the look that Evan Gattis had after his? Sure, Gattis didn’t flip his bat, but then Fernandez didn’t exactly Yasiel Puig his bat either.
– Isn’t Chris Johnson to blame for most of this? He could have just kept his mouth shut and let the rookie from the second-worst team in baseball enjoy the feeling of defeating the team that will still be playing in two weeks, but instead he escalated the situation after his fly-out.
– Better yet, how big of a d-bag does Johnson look like during and after Fernandez’s home run? As Fernandez is rounding third, Johnson puts his head down and turns around, but when Brian McCann stops Fernandez to give him the “Not cool, bro” routine for staring at his homer, Johnson sprints to home plate like he’s going to tear Fernandez’s head off, but then actually hides behind the umpire.
Fernandez has apologized for the chain of events that led to the benches clearing and even said that for that to happen on 9/11 of all days was “embarrassing.” But then again, does this really look like the face of a man who was embarrassed?
Don’t ever change, Jose Fernandez.
(GIFs via)
