To a degree it was understandable. After all, 23-year-old Angels rookie right-hander Keynan Middleton has only been in the major leagues for all of eight weeks, having made his major league debt with the halos on May 8, 2017 – almost two weeks to the day after Dodgers rookie phenom Cody Bellinger made his major league debut on April 25, 2017.

Middleton had undoubtedly seen and heard all of the hype Bellinger was receiving on local and national radio and television. He had also undoubtedly seen all of the ink, and more than likely had watched video on baseball’s newest poster child, and it no doubt miffed him a bit. I mean, here was a kid two years younger than himself who was absolutely crushing the ball and setting new franchise and even MLB records almost daily, not to mention already having been named the National League’s Player of the Week not once, but twice, while he himself was still very much an unknown except among the most knowledgeable of Angel fans.

Since his arrival to the bigs, Middleton – a third-round draft pick by the Angels in 2013 out of Lane Community College in Eugene, Oregon – had appeared in a grand total of 29 games, during which he had built a 2-0 record with an impressive 3.27 ERA in his 22 innings pitched, all in relief. He quickly reminded many Angel fans of another young right-hander who had exploded onto the scene back in 2002, a kid named Francisco Rodriguez, or “K-Rod” as he would come to be known, this because of his 98-MPH fastball and his filthy slider, although Middleton’s would break downward almost like a cutter, and the 23 strikeouts he had issued in those 22 innings of work. Yet in his eight weeks in the majors, Middleton had received little recognition and had yet to receive even one award – locally or otherwise.

Yes, it was understandable that when Keynan Middleton struck out Cody Bellinger, the leading candidate for the National League Rookie of the Year while he himself isn’t even a blip on the radar on the American League side, during Monday night’s 4-0 shutout of the Dodgers in their own ballpark that he would show some emotion. But what wasn’t understandable – or acceptable – was what he said in his show of emotion.

Dodgers rookie Cody Bellinger looks back at Kenyan Middleton after the Angels rookie yelled an expletive at him that might have caused a lesser man to charge him – but not an obviously more mature Bellinger.
(Video capture courtesy of SportsNet LA)

Even though this little outburst was apparently okay with Angels broadcaster Patrick O’Neal, it most certainly wasn’t okay with home plate umpire Jerry Layne, who warned the young Angels right-hander and apparently Angels manager Mike Scioscia, and rightfully so. This is the type of thing than can quickly lead to a benches-clearing brawl.

But it didn’t cause a benches-clearing brawl. In fact, it was nothing more than an insignificant fleeting moment for a younger and clearly more mature Cody Bellinger.

It’s one thing to not like the way a pitcher celebrates a strikeout, but it’s entirely a different thing to be a jerk about it.

Oh sure, you can argue that little more that 24 hours earlier Bellinger took a curtain call for hitting his league-leading 24th home run – the second of the game for the young Scottsdale, Arizona native – but that was undoubtedly at the urging of his teammates. And while that curtain call – likely the first of many more to come – undoubtedly upset Colorado Rockies veteran right-hander Adam Ottavino, he didn’t yell “Let’s f*****g go” to Bellinger.

Well played, Belly.

Grow up, Keynan.