Robert Hanashiro-USA TODAY Sports
LOS ANGELES — It was fairly subtle; quiet enough that the Giants’ starting pitcher did not even know about it. And yet it was unmistakable.
Mauricio Dubon did not take a shot at the Dodgers and Trevor Bauer. He took a jab. If this were fencing, Bauer might say, “Touche.”
Nine days after the polarizing heel of a Dodgers star sheathed his sword at Oracle Park upon striking out Alex Dickerson, Dubon took an invisible sword with him on a journey around the bases. He hit the hardest ball of his major league career — 107.1 mph off the bat — and believed it to be foul upon making contact. He stood at home plate and watched it hook.
“I was a little upset because I got the pitch and everything and I thought it was going to keep on going foul,” Dubon said after the 5-4 Giants win at Dodger Stadium on Sunday. “It ended up hitting the foul pole, so it was pretty crazy.”
Dubon blasts one off Kershaw, then trolls the Dodgers with the sword celebration after crossing home plate 😏 pic.twitter.com/ttisj1oJqe
— KNBR (@KNBR) May 30, 2021
He could start running. When he stopped — upon touching home plate — he imitated the Bauer gesture that has helped make him Public Enemy No. 1 in San Francisco. Dubon did not do it with quite as much flare, but he sent a message right back to one Dodgers star after homering off Clayton Kershaw.
“[Bauer] did it over there, and I did it over here. It’s fun,” said Dubon, who plays the game with a smile and emotion.
He had alerted — or is “warned” the word? — some teammates that he would put the sword away in a moment like that, and they dared him to go through with it. The Honduras native came to Sacramento as a teenager and is very much aware and appreciative of what Giants-Dodgers means.
“I took the rivalry a little serious growing up because I was a fan growing up. It’s a fun thing,” Dubon said.
While Gabe Kapler was not going to out-and-out praise a back-and-forth that could grow as the season goes on, he also wasn’t going to criticize it.
The Giants won’t see the Dodgers again until the end of June, but both teams will have long memories.
“I’m a fan of players being playful on the baseball field. I’m a fan of them getting excited when something good happens,” Kapler said after the Giants survived a couple two-run home runs in the eighth and ninth innings. “I think we’ve heard enough from players now for the last couple of years that they want it as part of the baseball game. As long as it’s all in good fun … I think it’s good for the sport.”
Dubon says he'd been thinking about mimicking Bauer's sword celebration if the opportunity arose:
"He did it over there and I did it over here. It's fun." pic.twitter.com/mywaxXGtlW
— KNBR (@KNBR) May 31, 2021
And perhaps good for the Giants’ clubhouse. It doesn’t contain a ton of characters, more filled with veterans who concern themselves with day-to-day process over on-field theatrics.
But they noticed Bauer. Even if not all of them noticed Dubon. Kevin Gausman had to be informed of the invisible sword’s presence.
“I love it,” the Giants’ ace said. “If he’s going to do it against us, why can’t we do it against them? It’s fun. It’s going to make this rivalry a lot of fun.”
