Dalton Rushing singlehandedly revived Dodgers-Giants rivalry as controversy takes wild turn

The Dodgers lost their three-game series to the Giants this week, keeping them tied for first place in the NL West with the Padres, but Yoshinobu Yamamoto's struggles, Patrick Bailey's unlikely homer, and Tyler Glasnow's stellar start all fell by the wayside as Dalton Rushing's beef with San Francisco took center stage.

Rushing's incident with Jung Hoo Lee in the opener did not remain isolated. Dodgers fans thought Rushing vowing to apologize might be the end of it, but of course it wasn't. On Thursday, Giants starter Logan Webb plunked Rushing with a 93 MPH four-seamer to the ribs in the top of the sixth.

Rushing clearly wasn't happy about it, but he took his base without fireworks. Hyeseong Kim came up next and grounded into a double play. Rushing made a hard slide right into Willy Adames' legs, but both runners were still called out.

Intentional? Maybe.

Of course, everyone had something to say about the events that unfolded throughout the series. Rushing insisted what he'd been caught saying after Lee's apparent injury had been misconstrued, and that he'd apologized, using Kim (Lee's former Kiwoom Heroes teammate) as a mediator.

Webb was asked after the game if the plunking was intentional, given the incident with Lee. He insisted it wasn't — "What thing with Jung Hoo?" — but the smug smirk on his face suggested otherwise.

Arraez had something to say about Rushing's slide tackle into Adames — "For me, it's not good baseball. It's not clean baseball." Dave Roberts said of the hit by pitch, "It probably was [intentional] and, for me, [Rushing] said what he said. I don't think he meant it too personally. But they see it. Social media catches it. Webby's an old school guy and he's protecting his teammates."

Basically, it was all a mess.

Breaking down what Dodgers, Giants players said after drama-filled series with Dalton Rushing at the center

Rushing eventually had the final word, "It's nothing against those guys. Hopefully the air is cleared, hopefully they got out what they wanted to. And I enjoy getting on base, so doesn't bother me."

It was funny that Roberts sort of contradicted what his player had been arguing the whole time. Rushing said he didn't even realize Lee was hurt; Roberts could only shrug and respond with "he said what he said." And he didn't immediately come to his player's defense even though he'd taken a fastball to the ribs.

This will probably turn into a blip as we get deeper into the season — but the Dodgers and Giants do see each other three more times this year and will play their last series in San Francisco — but it was a whirlwind "he said-he said" all the way through.

Rushing doesn't come out of this looking particularly innocent, but no one can say that the Dodgers' rookie doesn't have some fight in him.

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