Madison Bumgarner Says He Was ‘Congratulating’ Yasiel Puig

During the May 9 matchup between the San Francisco Giants and the Los Angeles Dodgers, Yasiel Puig hit the Dodgers’ lone home run off a pitch from the Giants’ Madison Bumgarner. And as the hitter made his way toward home plate, it looked like a fight between him and Bumgarner was about to break out.

According to a report from MLB.com, as Puig slowly trotted around the bases, Madison Bumgarner went up to the plate umpire, Will Little, and had a brief discussion about something. After their discussion was over, Bumgarner walked over toward the Dodgers hitter and apparently said something that set him off. The two exchanged some words before Little stepped in and halted the argument.

As for the reason behind the dispute, it could be a number of things. As soon as Puig hit his home run, he did a bat flip and admired the hit before circling the bases. As writer Ken Gurnick put it, Madison Bumgarner seemed upset that he was being “shown up” by Puig’s actions.

Puig claims he doesn’t know what Madison Bumgarner said to him, but he does remember Giants catcher Buster Posey saying “something like, ‘Let it go; go back to the bench.'”

He added that he was “surprised” to see Madison Bumgarner near the third-base line.

“I may have done something he didn’t like,” he said. “From my perspective, it’s part of the game.”

ESPN.com reported that Dodgers outfielder Scott Van Slyke felt his teammate “overreacted a little bit.”

“He felt like he had an unfair pitch thrown to him the previous time up, and then he acted like he got him back,” Slyke said. “But Puig’s an emotional guy. Some people just have that fire in them when they play, and it comes out sometimes.”

Madison Bumgarner seemed to joke about the whole incident, saying, after the game, that he was “congratulating” Puig on his home run.

“That was a really good swing,” Bumgarner said. “I don’t know why everybody got so mad. That was pretty impressive. I don’t know what happened.”

Bumgarner reiterated that he’s not sure “why everybody got so mad,” and that the incident “escalated quickly for no reason.”

“I think he said, ‘Thank you,’ I’m not sure if he did,” Bumgarner added. “I don’t speak Spanish very well.”

Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said he’s not sure what Madison Bumgarner was “upset about.”

“You see guys do stuff every day,” Mattingly added. “The double standard is always annoying.”

But Mattingly also praised Madison Bumgarner for his performance in the game, which resulted in the Giants winning 3-1.

“He’s got good stuff,” he noted. “He’s a handful every time we face him.”

The Dodgers turned around and beat the Giants 6-2 on Saturday, May 10. The series ends today, May 11, with a game time at 1:10 p.m. Pacific.