Dalton Rushing already has his tail between his legs after controversial run for Dodgers

Dalton Rushing has been conspicuously quiet since his viral incident with Nico Hoerner and Miguel Amaya last week. It was the last in a three-series run of bad publicity for the Dodgers' backup catcher, and we wouldn't be surprised if the Dodgers instructed him to simply stop talking until the dust settled a bit.

Hoerner was first to address the moment, when he acknowledged that he did hear Rushing call Amaya a "fat f—" and wished that he had done more in the moment to stand up for his teammate.

Rushing broke his silence on Saturday. "You never want to be viewed as a guy like that from opposing teams," he said. "You want guys to hate playing against you because of the player that you are and how great you are on a baseball field. Not because of the verbalized things you say."

Hoerner and Rushing share an agency, so Rushing reached out to Hoerner to clear the air. Although he suggested that Hoerner misheard him but still declined to volunteer what was actually said, "There was a word said, whether it was positive or negative or what. And he didn't like it. And I respect that."

Dalton Rushing (kind of) apologizes after string of bad publicity that turned him into baseball's most hated player

Dave Roberts said that he and others in the Dodgers clubhouse have had conversations with Rushing, advising him to temper his emotions a bit ... or at least get better at not getting caught. "He's bringing stuff onto himself he doesn’t need to bring on," Roberts said. "There's a responsibility to not be reckless because everything is captured."

Rushing insisted that, although he has a competitive edge that he doesn't want to kill, he doesn't want to develop a reputation as a bad guy.

It might be a little too late for that, but at least he finally acknowledged that his actions had been interpreted negatively and certainly made him look like a bad guy, even if he wasn't willing to own up to them fully.

It sounds like Roberts definitely put him in time out for a little while and told him to think about what he'd done — but Rushing also desperately needed that. No one's saying that we don't want a passionate, fiery player, but we could certainly do without the name-calling, which just reflects poorly on the otherwise very classy Dodgers and puts a target on his back too early in his still young career.

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