Do you hit grand slams on 3-0 counts when your team is blowing out an opponent? Is it right for a pitcher to throw at subsequent batters in retaliation for it? Those questions have hit the forefront in baseball as Fernando Tatis Jr’s grand slam home run in the 8th inning as his San Diego Padres led the Texas Rangers 7-0 Monday night.
Rangers pitcher Ian Gibaut threw behind Manny Machado right after Fernando Tatis Jr. hit a grand slam on a 3-0 pitch with the Padres leading by seven runs last night. pic.twitter.com/2eajDXt3UK
— ESPN (@espn) August 18, 2020
Brewers manager Craig Counsell didn’t see the incident, but used WTMJ’s “Wisconsin’s Morning News” to better explain why baseball’s “unwritten rules” exist, and why absolute answers of right and wrong may not.
“Unwritten rules are really a way for teams to get through games when we play 162 games every single day,” said Counsell. “There is some value to this code that we play by sometimes. I do not think throwing at hitters should be involved in that code at all. That shouldn’t be part of the code. I do think there’s value in some of the ways we get through games.”
Though he gave his opinion on throwing at hitters, he doesn’t believe a blanket answer on baseball’s “unwritten rules” is appropriate.
” ‘Hey, this is either right or (it’s) wrong.’ That’s not how it works,” he said. “Was this right or wrong? I don’t know enough about the situation of the game to answer the question. They’re tough questions, but I think finding yes or no answers sometimes is the worst thing we can all do.”
Listen to the full interview with Craig Counsell above.