Rich Hill Admits To Stepping Off The Mound So That Dodgers Fans Could Boo Yuli Gurriel Longer
Yu Darvish himself might’ve been forgiving for the racist gesture that Yuli Gurriel made earlier in the series, but not everybody on that Dodgers team shared the same sentiments. When the league opted to suspend Gurriel for five games in 2018 instead of having him sit out during the World Series, I thought for sure we’d see the Astros first baseman catch one in the ribs.
To this point, he has not, which obviously makes sense because willingly putting a runner on first base is asking for trouble when more home runs have been hit in this World Series than in any other World Series in history, and we still have one more game to go. However, not everybody on the Dodgers is taking the same forgive and forget approach as Darvish.
He might not have drilled Gurriel, but last night when the 33-year-old dug into the batter’s box for the first time in LA since the incident, Rich Hill stepped off the mound so that Dodger fans had more time to boo the shit out of Gurriel.
That’s what great teammates do. Obviously Hill was upset about it, but he didn’t let his emotions get the best of him by drilling Gurriel, which would have put the whole team in jeopardy in an elimination game in the World Series. But he clearly wanted to do something to indirectly say “fuck you” to Gurriel on a public stage, and this worked just fine. Love the move. Love it even more because he got him out afterwards, and again in the fourth inning.
By the way, I’m not above throwing at people. If the Dodgers go up big in Game 7, it’d probably be the loudest pop of the night if they put one between Gurriel’s numbers, all while they’re counting down the outs to a World Series title.