Dalton Rushing, catcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers, accused the Colorado Rockies of cheating following their 4-3 loss on Saturday night.
Rushing speculated that the Rockies, who won only 43 games last season, may have cheated after finding it “a little fishy” that they had so many swings on the first pitch.
“I think they had a good game plan as an opposing team, and maybe I pitched into their game plan. As far as calling pitches, I’m not 100% sure. I just, I think it’s odd some of those hitters that do what they do, they go up there and they were only on the first pitch that was thrown. So it’s a little fishy.” Rushing said.
While it might seem “fishy” for the Rockies to pull out an upset, some data backs up why they pulled through, per Awful Announcing.
According to Baseball Savant, the Rockies swing at the first pitch 38.4 percent of the time, tops in Major League Baseball. Their swing percentage in general is 50.8, behind only the Toronto Blue Jays. And their walk percentage is 7.9, the fifth-lowest mark in the majors. This is a hyperaggressive offense that likes to swing the bat a lot, probably too much so.
The Rockies also scored only four runs with seven hits and no home runs in the game at extremely hitter-friendly Coors Field, so it’s not like they were tearing the cover off the ball.
In all likelihood, this was just an aggressive offense swinging early in the count rather than cheating or knowing what pitch was coming.
Dave Roberts, manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, said he didn’t find the win “fishy,” putting the blame squarely on his team’s shoulders.
“I saw some bad breaking balls. I don’t think there was anything fishy there. I think there were some bad pitches,” he said.
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