Dalton Rushing's obnoxious umpire gesture just raised Dodgers' temperature again

Dalton Rushing has given Dodgers haters a real face to point to and direct their hate toward, instead of just the shadowy, all-encompassing monolith that is the Dodgers.

Even fans who hate the Dodgers have to respect what Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, and so on have done in their careers and what they're still capable of. If any of them decided to transform into divas overnight, it would weird, it would be a little concerning — but at least they would have the résumés to back it up.

Rushing can't say the same. He's red-hot to start the season (.348/1.271 through 15 games), and has gotten his pats on the back for the way he's settled into his backup role while still making himself stand out. But he still has less than 100 major league games under his belt, and has seen all of one plate appearance in the postseason (and he struck out).

This is what's made fans turn on him so quickly ... and it's at least a little warranted. Anything he does from here on out is going to be put under a microscope, but he also invited that unto himself.

To be fair to Rushing, he didn't actually say anything untoward during the latest viral incident. On Tuesday, during the Dodgers' series against the Marlins, Rushing called for time and appeared to be granted it by home plate umpire Clint Vondrak. Vondrak either forgot or didn't know what he was granting in the first place, because he rung up Rushing on a pitch clock violation.

On Wednesday, Rushing was back in the box in the bottom of the fourth and got to 0-2 against Sandy Alcantara before stepping out. He held up a hand toward new home plate umpire Austin Jones, and kept it there for a few seconds until he was acknowledged. We'll put our Jomboy hats on for a second; he definitely said, "I gotta do it now."

Dalton Rushing overcorrects in Dodgers-Marlins finale after being called out on a pitch clock violation on Tuesday

The responses to Rushing's reaction to being called out on the pitch clock violation and then exaggeratedly calling it the next day speak to the level of villainy he's elevated himself to in no time at all. If it had happened to any other Dodgers player, their frustration would've been righteous. Now that Rushing has a target on his back, it's obnoxious.

And that double standard might be unfair, but as we've already established — Rushing kind of did it to himself.

For now, grievances with him seem mostly contained. Although his incident with Jung Hoo Lee turned into a whole saga, the one with Miguel Amaya has gone mostly unaddressed within Dodgers media (and Rushing hasn't spoken to reporters much since that Giants series, which might not be a coincidence). It took Nico Hoerner being asked about it on a Chicago-based podcast for it to become a certifiable thing that managed to break Twitter containment.

If there's a kind of gag order on Rushing right now, it might be for the best.

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