From one great to another, Clayton Kershaw says Major League Baseball should institute an additional punishment for managers who falsely malign a pitcher's character, as Joe Girardi did with Max Scherzer Tuesday night.
After he was already checked twice before in the game, Girardi asked umpires to check Scherzer's head for foreign substances in the fourth inning of Tuesday's game. The umpires obliged, although they came away with nothing but a handful of human sweat.
"I will say this," Kershaw said. "You know how Girardi checked Scherzer, or called him out. I think there should be a punishment if they don't catch anything on the guy.
"Because Scherzer, he's one of the best pitchers of our generation. And to see him get checked — and I think it [a] was first-and-third situation, or guys on base — and mess up his rhythm... I think he ended up getting out of it."
"But you better find something, if you're gonna call him out like that," said Kershaw. "So maybe there should be like a punishment if a manager checks a guy and there isn't anything."
