Jose Fernandez is one of the most exciting young pitchers in all of baseball, but it’s what he did at the plate Wednesday night that cleared the dugouts in Miami.
Fernandez, making his last start of his rookie season, also hit his first career home run against the Atlanta Braves. The Marlins hurler flung his bat and stared at the home run ball before taking his sweet time getting around the bases.
That is a baseball no-no, even if Fernandez was still upset after Atlanta’s Evan Gattis appeared to show up the pitcher earlier in the game.
Braves third baseman Chris Johnson looked visibly disgusted as Fernandez ran by and Atlanta catcher Brian McCann had words for the pitcher when he finished his long trot around the bases. The bases eventually cleared and tempers flared before order was eventually restored.
After eventually cooling down, Fernandez realized his mistake. That, or someone told him he should look like he realized his mistakes. Either way, Fernandez was apologetic after the game.
“[McCann] and I are really close,” Fernandez said, according to MLB.com. “Freddie Freeman, too. He told me, ‘Buddy, you can’t do that.’ I told him, ‘I’m sorry, the game got the best of me.’ I was just going to walk away. He was talking to me as a friend, or a dad, teaching a kid. That’s how I felt.”
He went even deeper after that.
“I feel I don’t deserve to be here, because this isn’t high school no more,” he added. “This is a professional game, and we should be professional players. I think that never should happen. I’m embarrassed, and hopefully that will never happen again.”
McCann seemed to back up the notion that Fernandez felt some immediate regret, too.
“He happened to hit a home run and stood there. I just told him you can’t do that. You can get someone hurt. It was just something that didn’t need to happen.
“He didn’t get aggressive. We just looked at each other. I think he realized that he messed up. I think the emotions got the best of him tonight.”
With all of that said, it at least sounds like Fernandez has learned his lesson.
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