San Francisco Giants manager Gabe Kapler was ejected from Thursday’s series finale against the Los Angeles Dodgers after confronting umpire Phil Cuzzi while tensions on the field were high.
The incident happened in the sixth inning when Giants relief pitcher Jarlín García mocked the Dodgers’ head-tap celebration after striking out Cody Bellinger and James Outman. García stared at Betts while doing so after the second instance.
Betts took offense to García’s actions and the umpires kept the two players separated, but Kapler stormed out of the dugout to yell at Cuzzi before he earned his first career ejection with the Giants.
While it was unclear what Kapler was arguing during the game, the skipper explained he was frustrated that Cuzzi reprimanded him in front of his team, via Alyson Footer of MLB.com:
“The conversation was basically, ‘That wasn’t OK,’” Kapler said, recalling what Cuzzi said to him. “And obviously, I took exception to sort of being scolded in front of our dugout about how to approach and address our players, which obviously, I have done, our veteran players have done and I would do no matter what. So we didn’t really need any prompting there.”
García mocking the celebration left some of the Dodgers players and manager Dave Roberts confused. Epecially because it was directed at Betts, who was just standing on deck preparing for his potential plate appearance. The left-hander said he decided to focus on Betts because of a home run going back to their last series:
“I just did the same gesture that they did when they hit a home run,” García said through a team interpreter. “He did that against me the other day when he hit a home run and I just said, ‘You know what? Let me do the same thing.’ And he just signaled [me] to come towards him, and that was it.”
The Dodgers went on to win 5-3, with Trea Turner giving them an insurance run with a solo home run in the next inning after the incident.
With the win, the Dodgers completed a sweep of the Giants in a four-game series played in San Francisco for the first time since July 1-4, 1977. They have eight consecutive victories against the Giants, which tied the Los Angeles franchise record for the longest winning streak in their head-to-head meetings.
Trea turner started Dodgers head tapping celebration
The Dodgers’ latest celebration spawned from by Turner’s love for “The Wolf of Wall Street,” a movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio. There’s a scene where DiCaprio’s character, “Jordan Belfort,” decides to remain at his company despite an investigation by the SEC.
DiCaprio’s character gives an energetic speech that and includes hitting his head with a microphone. Turner is said to have memorized the speech and on occasion reenacts it for teammates.
The head tapping he and the Dodgers do is their version of Belfort taking a stand.
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