What, did you really think he was going to take Puig’s side?
San Francisco Giants manager Bruce Bochy was interviewed by ESPN’s Buster Olney during Tuesday’s game against the Dodgers and pinned the blame for a first inning bench-clearing incident on Yasiel Puig.
Puig was hit by a Madison Bumgarner pitch and looked out at the mound afterwards, leading to some tension between the two and benches to clear.
“Well you know there’s a little bit of tension in there, I guess,” Bochy said to Olney. “But you see that all the time. Guy gets hit and he doesn’t go to first right away … you’re creating that drama. He got up and stared at [Madison Bumgarner] — Bum’s already mad at himself because he just gave up a home run. He just yanked a slider …”
So that’s Bochy blaming Puig for creating the drama by not going directly to first.
Dodgers manager Don Mattingly was later interviewed by Olney and said he instructed Puig to forget about his issues with Bumgarner.
“I was just telling him to stay in the game and to try to win the game with his bat and his glove. … I was telling him let’s do our damage on the field and let this go.”
Of course Bochy was going to defend his guy and blame things on Puig. But how could you not expect Puig to react after what happened between the two in May? Bumgarner seemed like the instigator in that confrontation … and it’s hard not to think it was intentional this time.
