Memo to MLB: Don’t pat Max Scherzer on the buttocks.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts apparently learned that the hard way.
During Scherzer’s debut with Los Angeles this month, Roberts said that he ended each inning by patting the ace’s behind — a common form of celebration in baseball and other sports.
But by the fourth inning, Scherzer had had enough.
“Did he just say, ‘don’t effing touch me?'” Roberts said while relaying the story to “Sunday Night Baseball” on ESPN. “Then I got the scoop from our players, like, ‘Hey Doc, make sure you don’t touch him, he doesn’t want anybody touching him.”
Afterward, Roberts confronted the ace about the incident.
“And he [Scherzer] goes ‘yeah, and I gave you the tempered, most respectful way I could say it, because this is my job. I don’t need any kind of congratulations or support,” Roberts said. “That’s my job.’ So tonight, I won’t be patting him on the butt.”
Scherzer threw seven strikeouts and gave up two earned runs in six innings as the Dodgers beat the Mets, 14-4, on Sunday.
The 37-year-old is 2-0 with a 2.20 ERA in three starts with Los Angeles after being traded by the Nationals last month.