Baseball has rules. Some are written down. Most are not. Josh Naylor and the Detroit Tigers had themselves a refresher course on the unwritten variety Saturday afternoon at Comerica Park.
Naylor, the Mariners first baseman, did something strange in the third inning. He threw his sliding mitt at Tigers catcher Dillon Dingler as he was sliding into home. The video is everywhere on social media. The mitt did not affect the play, but the move clearly registered with the Detroit dugout.
Fast forward to the fifth inning. Naylor came up to the plate against Tigers pitcher Keider Montero. The first fastball drilled him.
This is the kind of thing baseball still sorts out internally, and the Tigers were absolutely sorting something out. Naylor smiled after taking the pitch, which is its own statement, and the game continued without further incident.
For Naylor, this is becoming a pattern. He was also accused of stealing signs against the Tigers during the 2025 AL Division Series. He had another bizarre moment Friday night when he took a ground ball to first base himself instead of flipping it to a covering pitcher, which led to a near-collision with Kevin McGonigle. None of that is a coincidence.
Naylor plays the game his way. Some of it is fine. Some of it pushes against unwritten rules in ways that other teams notice. The Tigers had noticed enough.
The mitt throw itself was the kind of thing that makes no sense in the moment. There was no advantage to be gained. The ball was already on its way. Throwing equipment in the direction of a catcher just because is the sort of move that earns a fastball in the ribs, every single time.
The Mariners ended up winning the game 4-0. Naylor went 1-for-4 with the hit by pitch, which is technically a productive day if you do not count the welt.
Detroit is going to be fine with how this played out. They got the response they wanted. They did not get ejected. Both teams move on, and Naylor presumably keeps his sliding mitt to himself the next time he is at home plate.
For Tigers fans, this kind of self-policing is exactly what you want from a competitive team. Detroit has been one of the surprise stories in baseball over the past two years. Veteran players take this stuff seriously, and so do veteran clubhouses. The Tigers responding to a perceived slight tells you something about where this team is in its development.
The Mariners are not going to be intimidated by it. They are also going to remember it. Anyone who thinks this is the last chapter between these two clubs is not paying attention. There is a series sometime in August in Seattle, and that one might get interesting.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
