Arizona Diamondbacks skipper Torey Lovullo had Tim Tawa’s back after a contentious moment Sunday against the Cleveland Guardians.
Guardians starting pitcher Gavin Williams had a perfect game through five innings of work against the D-Backs at Progressive Field in Cleveland, Ohio. The 6’6″ right-hander sat at 67 pitches when Tawa came up to bat as the leadoff man in the top of the 6th inning.
Facing an 0-1 count, Tawa squared up to bunt. While the attempt went foul, it didn’t make the move feel any less disrespectful to some of the Guardians players. Catcher Patrick Bailey and shortstop Brayan Rocchio exchanged words with Tawa, who ended up breaking the perfect game anyway with a single to right field one pitch later.
Guardians were pissed at the Dbacks after they tried to bunt and end Gavin Williams' perfect game
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) August 2, 2026
The benches ended up clearing in the pouring rain as the grounds crew tried to get the tarp on the field pic.twitter.com/Yn27HaqCnS
The game was paused later in the inning due to heavy rain, but not before a benches-clearing scrum broke out on the field.
While speaking to reporters after the game, Lovullo was asked if Tawa had broken an “unwritten rule” in that moment. The longtime D-Backs manager didn’t think so.
“Not even close, for me,” Lovullo responded, via Sports Illustrated’s Alex D’Agostino.
“I’m totally fine with him bunting in the sixth inning of a game,” Lovullo said, speaking with D-backs.TV’s Todd Walsh.
“It’s either black or white for me. I don’t like gray stuff. So [Tawa] asked if he could bunt. We all checked off on it, said absolutely. And they clearly took exception to that.”
Lovullo didn’t disparage an unwritten rule, but instead argued about what the rules actually were. He shared that he had a conversation about such a scenario with Guardians manager Steven Vogt in the past, when the latter was still a D-Backs player under Torey.
The understanding the two supposedly had was that teams “can do basically anything” through six innings. Anything beyond that and teams staring down getting no-hit or being on the wrong end of a perfect game have to “be careful” with their decisions.
Tawa’s hit, however, failed to spark a Diamondbacks comeback. The visitors managed just a pair of hits in a 5-0 loss to the Guardians.
