Fernando Tatis Jr. belted two home runs off of Trevor Bauer on Saturday night, and the San Diego Padres slugger was not exactly humble about it. As you would expect, Bauer says the antics didn’t bother him one bit.
Tatis led off the game with a home run and covered up one eye as he rounded the bases. He was mocking Bauer, as the Los Angeles Dodgers star pitched an inning with one eye closed against the Padres in spring training. Tatis then hit another homer in the sixth inning and trolled Bauer by doing the wavy-arms strut near home plate. That’s the same celebration Bauer uses sometimes, which is a knockoff of Conor McGregor stealing it from Vince McMahon.
You can see videos of both of Tatis’ home runs here.
Bauer was asked after the game, which the Padres won 5-4, about Tatis taunting him. He said he is “all for it.”
“I like it. Pitchers who have that done to them and react by throwing at people or get upset, hitting people or whatever … I think it’s pretty soft,” Bauer said, via ESPN Radio’s Jorge Sedano. “If you give up a homer, a guy should celebrate it. It’s hard to hit in big leagues.
“I’m all for it and it’s important that the game moves in that direction and we stop throwing at people because they celebrated having some success on the field.”
Bauer loves promoting the game of baseball and has no problem violating so-called “unwritten rules.” He’s openly trolled fans during games with stunts like this, so he knows it would be hypocritical to complain about having it done to him.
