A misunderstanding led Jason Heyward and Madison Bumgarner to exchange words around home plate in the fourth inning of their spring game on Thursday night.

Bumgarner thought Heyward and Dexter Fowler were stealing signs during the spring game between the San Francisco Giants and Chicago Cubs.

Heyward insists he was only asking Fowler, who was on second base at the time, if a called third strike was a good pitch.

"Dexter was so discreet I was still waiting for a response," Heyward explained. "He was too subtle. I was like 'just give me a thumbs up on the side.' I didn't see it so I was still looking and I was looking and getting ready to turn and Buster (Posey) was like, 'Hey, hey what we got?' And I was like, 'Well, this doesn't look good but this isn't what you guys thought it was.'"

Bumgarner thought Heyward was upset that Fowler didn't give him the correct sign before strike three was thrown.

"He (Heyward) didn't say anything to him (Fowler)," Bumgarner said. "He just looked at him, from what I could tell. If it looked like he was upset with him, there's only one reason he could be doing that. You might want to be a little more discreet about that if you're going to do that kind of thing.

"I thought he was looking at me or talking to me. But he said he wasn't. So there's only one other person for him to be talking to -- the guy standing on second base."

Heyward just wishes Fowler would have been less discreet about whether he thought it was a ball or a strike. Then he would have headed right back to the dugout.

“It was a misunderstanding," Heyward added. "No tipping of the signs. I understand people would say, 'Oh, they wouldn't tell us anyway' but believe me or not, that was not going on. Especially in a spring training game. I wouldn't show up my teammate if they gave me the wrong sign. That just looks bad."