Prince Fielder got plunked by Guillermo Mota in the ninth, and then this happened:
Fielder took off for the Dodgers’ side of the stadium after the final out, shouting obscenities all the way to the clubhouse door. Several teammates trailed behind him in a surreal scene, but Bill Hall and Casey McGehee got a firm grip on Fielder while a wall of security blocked his way.
Obviously Fielder was hot about Mota’s pitch! Listen to him unload in the post-game interviews!
“He came inside. It just got away from him. It happens. That’s baseball. He tried to come inside.”
Er, yeah. I can only assume that by that point he had had a conversation with his union rep or the lithium had kicked in or something. Best part: he claimed not to recall that whole storm the clubhouse incident from a few minutes prior. That ought to keep the fines and suspensions at bay!
What kills me about this is that, though I think the code of plunkings in baseball is totally stupid, within the context of that code the Mota plunk was totally legit. Manny Ramirez had hit a homer and a two-run double by the time he came to bat in the seventh, and the Brewers were losing ugly when Chris Smith hit him. That happens from time to time, and when it does, the plunking team has to expect that someone on their side is going to get hit in return. Fielder is the obvious target for that, and as long as the ball hits the dude on the rump or somewhere similarly padded (which is everywhere on Fielder), folks tend to move on.
Why Fielder flipped like he did is beyond me, especially given Ryan Braun’s whole “tell Mr. Selig, we’ll see what happens. It’s going to be interesting” business and subsequent beanball war with the Pirates earlier this season.
It’s as if someone needs to write down all of the unwritten rules for the Brewers, because they clearly don’t understand them.
