Colby Lewis has seriously taken the unwritten rules of baseball to a level you probably didn’t realize they could go.
Be warned: you may struggle to comprehend his complaint.
Lewis’ Texas Rangers were down 2-0 to the Toronto Blue Jays Saturday when Toronto outfielder Colby Rasmus bunted for a hit with two outs in the fifth inning. The Rangers were playing Rasmus to pull and had the shift on, so Rasmus decided to beat it with a bunt towards the third base side of the field. He executed the bunt perfectly and got aboard with a hit. The Rangers gave him half an empty field and he took advantage. Fair and square.
Not according to Lewis.
Lewis immediately began barking at Rasmus, suggesting he felt the outfielder took the easy way out by dropping down a bunt.
“Swing the bat,” Lewis could be seen mouthing to Rasmus.
Lewis explained his complaint to reporters after the game. Don’t even bother trying to figure out what Lewis meant.
“I told [Rasmus] I didn’t appreciate it,” Lewis said to reporters via MLB.com. “You’re up by two runs with two outs and you lay down a bunt. I don’t think that’s the way the game should be played.
“I felt like you have a situation where there is two outs, you’re up two runs, you have gotten a hit earlier in the game off me, we are playing the shift, and he laid down a bunt basically simply for average.
“[Rasmus] didn’t steal within the first two pitches to put himself in scoring position,” Lewis said. “That tells me he is solely looking out for himself, and looking out for batting average. And I didn’t appreciate it.”
I mean how unbelievably dumb is that? Is he suggesting that a player is violating the unwritten rules by trying to get on base and get a hit with a two-run lead in the 5th inning of a game? I guess two runs is too much for the Rangers these days. Is he suggesting that bunting is cheating or taking the easy way out? Don’t give him the shift next time. Or, better yet, don’t fall off the mound towards the first base side, Colby, and then you might be able to get someone out.
And it’s somehow a bad thing that Rasmus was playing to get a hit? That means he’s just trying to pad his stats?
Not one thing Lewis said made sense. The guy was obviously just frustrated about being beaten. That’s how players react when they’re frustrated. They just start talking nonsense. That’s all Lewis was spewing. Nonsense.
