Things got personal between former teammates in the Mariners-Guardians game on Sunday.
Seattle’s first baseman Josh Naylor and Guardians catcher Austin Hedges exchanged words after Naylor seemingly leaned into a pitch and took it off the elbow.
“No one likes you,” Austin Hedges appears to say to Naylor. “Literally nobody likes you.”
The encounter began when Hedges told the umpire that Naylor leaned into the pitch, and Naylor then called the catcher a “f–king loser” and argued it was a breaking ball and that it was not his fault he was hit.
Hedges’ response is based on lip reading and was not caught on a microphone.
The two played together for four years with the Guardians and Padres, most recently in 2024, but were separated when Naylor was traded to the Diamondbacks that year.
When they were teammates, Naylor had a lot of praise for Hedges, though he did say you “kind of got to be able to talk crap back to him” to get him to calm down.
“He’s an awesome person to have around. His energy is infectious,” Naylor said in 2024. “He wants to be here. He wants to win. He wants to have fun. He also wants to learn and grow every day.”
The altercation was just part of an entertaining game in which Seattle scored more than three runs for the first time since June 12.
The Mariners led 4-1 heading into the eighth inning, but a four-hit, five-run inning for the Guardians was too much for Seattle to overcome in the ninth.
Naylor finished the game 2-for-4 with an RBI double, and Hedges went 1-for-2 before being taken out for Patrick Bailey in the sixth.
Thanks to the win, the Guardians maintain their tie for the top spot in the AL Central with a 44-40 record.