​Longtime Dodgers veterans Mookie Betts and Max Muncy weighed in on the Dalton Rushing debate following his rough outing against the Minnesota Twins. Rushing critiqued a game by Shohei Ohtani on June 24, noting it as a poorly called game. Ohtani, who isn’t often flustered, appeared clearly frustrated with Rushing. In the second inning, Ohtani began to distrust Rushing’s game-calling. Though catchers typically handle the signals through PitchCom, Ohtani felt he had a better read on the hitters than Rushing.
During that inning, Rushing made a miscue by inputting two pitches into PitchCom simultaneously, resulting in a passed ball with the bases loaded and a run scoring. To complicate matters, Rushing disagreed with Ohtani on two challenged calls, both of which Ohtani correctly disputed. The Dodgers managed to escape the frame, but Ohtani stormed to the locker room, with Rushing following soon after. From the third inning onward, Ohtani took charge of calling his own game, and he found considerable success.
Rushing found himself under intense public scrutiny as a result of the high-profile incident. More than a week later, Betts and Muncy discussed Rushing on Betts’s podcast. “Well, let’s start by saying Rush is doing an amazing job. But like you said, it does make you appreciate exactly what Will does. Will was in that same position once. He had to learn,” Muncy said, referring to Will Smith’s early experiences with a veteran pitcher. “Will had to learn with Kersh, which, honestly, is probably even a little tougher. But I also think that was good for Will. Now you look at what Rush is doing with Shohei and Yama. You just start getting this feel for the game that I think Rush is still learning. Sometimes it’s OK to get away from what the sheet is telling you to call.”
Muncy continued, explaining that catchers sometimes stray from the scouting sheet, especially when pairing with a pitcher like Kershaw, whose strengths include a fastball and a slider—against right-handed hitters, the slider is a powerful weapon. There were numerous moments when Will could have followed the scouting report and avoided a slider, but Kershaw’s best pitch is what he needed to throw. The point, Muncy said, is that sometimes it’s necessary to deviate from the data. He suggested that Rush is still learning this balance, particularly with Shohei, who has specific pitch and location preferences that data might not always align with. When a pitcher believes in his approach, sometimes you have to back him up, even if it means stepping off the script.