Snyder's Soapbox: Sore loser is a bad look on a Dodgers player

Dalton Rushing is young, but he needs to learn better than this

Welcome to Snyder's Soapbox! Here, I pontificate about matters related to Major League Baseball on a weekly basis. Some of the topics will be pressing matters, some might seem insignificant in the grand scheme of things, and most will be somewhere in between. The good thing about this website is that it's free, and you are allowed to click away. If you stay, you'll get smarter, though. That's a money-back guarantee. Let's get to it.

The mighty Dodgers -- the two-time defending champion Dodgers -- went into Colorado's Coors Field last weekend and lost two straight. This is a Rockies ballclub that was historically bad at 43-119 last year. They are a little better this year, but were still 7-13 compared to the Dodgers' 15-4 heading into Saturday. 

Then the Rockies won, 4-3. And this was the reaction from Dodgers catcher Dalton Rushing after the game.

Dalton Rushing said it was ‘a little fishy’ how the #Rockies hitters were swinging at the first pitch and connecting. Rushing found it very odd. “I think they had a good game plan as an opposing team, and maybe I pitched into their game plan. As far as calling pitches, I'm not… pic.twitter.com/ftqnzlRC92

— Fredo Cervantes (@FredoCervantes) April 19, 2026

"I think they had a good game plan as an opposing team, and maybe I pitched into their game plan. As far as calling pitches, I'm not 100% sure. I just, I think it's odd some of those hitters that do what they do, they go up there and they were only on the first pitch that was thrown. So it's a little fishy," Rushing said.  

Wait, what? Fishy? FISHY? 

This would be outrageous even if the Rockies did something like score 12 runs on 17 hits in a pitcher-friendly park. And if you didn't see the score, you might be assuming they did pretty well on offense. They weren't bad, but they scored four runs on seven hits. Four of those seven hits were doubles. None were home runs. 

Line that up with the "fishy" comment, especially knowing this game took place in Coors Field. 

I know Rushing didn't explicitly say anything, but the word "fishy" carries with it an insinuation that there's something nefarious at play -- as in cheating or sign stealing or something like that. 

Four runs on seven hits in Coors? Fishy? 

I can't get over this. 

The Dodgers have won the World Series two years in a row. They have one of the smartest organizations in baseball (arguably the smartest) and very little gets by them. The Rockies have been a laughingstock for years. There's a new front office in place, sure, but it's only been a few weeks of regular-season games. 

Is Rushing suggested that these Rockies somehow figured out a way to pull the proverbial wool over the eyes of the Dodgers and cheat? Why were the Rockies only 7-13 before that game? Did they just figure out the puzzle after the game Friday night? 

Now, let's be fair. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts the following day told reporters (via The Athletic), "I saw some bad breaking balls, so I don't think there was anything fishy behind it. I think there were some bad pitches."

See, the Dodgers made bad pitches! It does happen occasionally!

Further -- yes, there's more -- the Rockies lead the majors in first-pitch swing percentage. They led before facing the Dodgers on Saturday, too. They didn't change their approach. They kept swinging. Maybe make an adjustment back there and don't feed them first-pitch strikes? 

And, again, I cannot stress this enough: These comments happened after the Rockies scored four runs!

It just reeks of being a sore loser, doesn't it? 

Now, Rushing is a youngster at age 25, but he played in 53 games for the Dodgers in the regular season last year and he was with the club in the playoffs, appearing in one NLDS game. We can give him a bit of a break for being young, but let's not go nuts.

The lesson here? Even the two-time champions aren't immune from whining when they lose. 

Let's just keep it in house in the future and in public strike a similar tone to that of the esteemed manager. No one wants to hear the best team in baseball insinuating one of the worst teams had to be cheating in order to win a game by one run. It's a terrible look.