Blue Jays trying to snitch on Shohei Ohtani for pitching warmups was pathetic

There were, sort of disappointingly, few fireworks during the Dodgers and Blue Jays' first two games in their first meeting since the World Series. Although Toronto manager John Schneider was ejected in the second game and Shohei Ohtani was uncharacteristically incensed at being hit on a pickoff attempt, no one was chirping, no one was getting intentionally hit by pitches, etc.

In some ways, it makes sense. The Dodgers have all but turned their noses up at the Blue Jays and Toronto and have been committed to playing the bigger men, and anything the Blue Jays do would just make them look like sore losers.

But the series finale did offer a callback to the Fall Classic, and an annoying one at that. In Game 7, with Shohei Ohtani pitching the biggest start of his career, Schneider and the Blue Jays were miffed by how long it took him to warm up.

Flash forward to Wednesday night, George Springer came out of the on-deck circle to ask the home plate umpire a question, seemingly about Ohtani's warmup on the mound. The Jays' broadcast cut to Dave Roberts shaking his head in the Dodgers' dugout.

We're right there with you, man.

Blue Jays revive ridiculous old beef with Dodgers, Shohei Ohtani over pitching warmups

An admittedly nebulous rule about "special circumstances" that can be given to pitchers during warmups was clarified during the World Series last year by former umpire Mark Carlson on FOX's broadcast. What it really boiled down to was that Ohtani is an exceptional case, and the umpiring crew could use their own discretion.

The circumstances that led to Schneider's antics last year (he was shaking his head and tapping his watch as Ohtani warmed) were exactly the same on Wednesday. In Game 7, Ohtani returned to the mound after either being the last out of an inning or ending that inning on-base. On Wednesday, when Springer questioned the umpire, Ohtani had been on second at the end of LA's offense's half of the first inning.

Dave Roberts said of the complaining: "If he's on the bases, there's got to be some grace, which the umpires are trying to give him. Yeah, if you're on the other side, you're trying to rush him as much as possible and treat him like any other pitcher. But the truth is that he's different."

And that should be the end of that. The Dodgers won't see the Blue Jays for the rest of the regular season, so let's hope we've seen an end to this nonsense.