By Banzay on 23:41
Filed Under: Morgan, Nyjer
Depending on who you ask, either the Marlins or Nationals were in gross violation of baseball etiquette Wednesday.Everybody knew Nyjer Morgan was going to wear one. Tuesday, he steamrolled catcher Brett Hayes, causing a separated shoulder on a play where a slide would have sufficed. As expected, Volstad in the fourth inning hit Morgan at the belt and for a moment it seemed that where it would end.Instead, Morgan in the Marlins’ estimation spat on the game’s unwritten code. The speedy Morgan stole second and third despite the fact the Nationals trailed 14-3 at the time. The Marlins were holding him on. Volstad didn’t admit to it, but Wes Helms confirmed Morgan running didn’t sit well.“I think that’s the only reason we tried to go after him a second time,” Helms said. “Since he stole the bases, I think it pumped us up a little more and got to Volstad a little bit. We just have to stick together as a team and let them know we’re not going to stand for that. We’re a professional team. We’re not going to let that happen to us and we wouldn’t do it ourselves.“I cannot stand when a guy shows somebody up or show the integrity of the game up to the fans or whatever. There’s just no place in baseball for that. In my opinion, you’re going to get what’s coming to you if you do that. Tonight, it was time we had to show him we weren’t going to put up with the way he was treating us, but also with the way he was trying to take bases down 10 runs. After he got hit, you know why he did it…I can’t really say anything good about a guy that doesn’t play the game the right way and doesn’t play for the integrity of the game.”Volstad zipped a pitch behind Morgan in the sixth and Morgan charged.Here’s Nats manager Jim Riggleman’s take on the stolen bases: “My feeling has always been, if you hit somebody, then you did what you set out to do. You hit him, and now if he decides to run on you, that’s his business. I got no problem with that. We decide when we run. The Florida Marlins will not decide when we run. We will decide when we run. Nobody will decide when we run. I don’t put restrictions on when somebody else can run. That’s not in my control. But nobody’s going to put the controls on me as to when our club runs. If Nyjer decides to run, he ran. That’s his business. He felt that’s the way I’m going to get my payback. Sometimes some guys get it in the form of going in hard at somebody at second base on a double play. I’ve seen that many times. But Nyjer took his revenge in the form of a stolen base. And I don’t have any problem with it.”Were the Marlins justified in trying to hit Morgan a second time? Or was Morgan required to go to first, tail tucked firmly between legs, and make no attempt to advance on his own considering the circumstances?
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