Cubs' Nico Hoerner says he wishes he confronted Dodgers C Dalton Rushing more for calling teammate a 'fat f***'

Dalton Rushing does not appear to be in MLB to make friends.

It’s not often you see the backup catcher of the defending champions, the Los Angeles Dodgers in this case, take up the resident villain role. However, Rushing seems to have antagonized an opponent in three straight series.

On Saturday, it was the Chicago Cubs. The incident in question came in the third inning with Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner at bat, when a pitch in the dirt from Roki Sasaki allowed Cubs backup catcher Miguel Amaya to take second base.

In the aftermath of Amaya beating Rushing’s throw to second, the cameras caught Rushing saying… something that led to a surprised reaction from Hoerner. Some lip-readers at home interpreted Rushing as calling Amaya a “fat f***.”

The Dodgers won that game 12-4.

All of that hung in the air until Tuesday, when Hoerner went on the Spiegel & Holmes Show and confirmed that Rushing indeed called Amaya a “fat f***.”

His reaction:

“I wish that I had confronted him a little more directly, to be honest. I was pretty taken aback and in the middle of my at-bat. It was just kind of a strange thing to experience. So yeah, I felt a little weird about that.”

I'm not saying I should have like tackled the guy or anything. But yeah, just a little taken aback. Just at the end of the day, you just want to have your teammates’ backs.”

Not that any of this is important, but we’re just going to note Rushing is listed at 6-foot, 220 pounds while Amaya is listed at 6-foot-1, 230 pounds.

For those keeping score at home, here’s what has happened with Rushing in the Dodgers’ previous two series:

• Rushing accused the Colorado Rockies of doing something “fishy” (i.e. sign-stealing), only for manager Dave Roberts to dismiss the idea. He got relentlessly mocked by the Rockies for the rest of the series.