Once upon a time, there was a widely held understanding that the moment a player physically contacts an umpire in some form of aggression towards the manager or another player, said player would get tossed faster than junk mail. Apparently, that unspoken rule exists no longer based on Yadier Molina’s outright molestation of ump Tim Timmons to get to Arizona Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo in the wrap-up game of the past weekend’s set in St. Louis.
All accounts, including Lovullo himself, are that the D-Backs skipper let slip an inappropriate phrase or derogatory name during the exchange. Whatever it was, it lit off Molina to completely lose his shit and try to go all Road House on Lovullo while Lovullo was flashing peace signs and saying, “It’s all cool, man.”
Ultimately, both players received a one-game suspension. Lovullo took his medicine immediately, sitting out the middle game in San Francisco – the D-Backs lone loss of that series. Molina opted to initially protest and then accept the suspension, buying an extra game’s pay before taking a rest and re-peroxiding his doo.
Whatever message is being sent throughout this entire affair ultimately doesn’t matter because whatever happened seems to have stirred Paul Goldschmidt from his early season slumber. Through that final game in the St. Louis ice box, Goldschmidt was hitting a nice round .100. Since that game, Goldy is 5 for 12 with a double, a triple and two homers.
And Diamondbacksland is no longer singing “Where have you gone Joe Dimaggio?”.
"Goldy's back." That's 2 HRs in his last 3 at-bats for Paul Goldschmidt and the @Dbacks take a 2-0 lead in the 4th inning. pic.twitter.com/om0GoGttZO— FOX Sports Arizona (@FOXSPORTSAZ) April 11, 2018
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