MLB has announced that Nationals reliever Jorge López has been suspended three games for throwing at Andrew McCutchen Wednesday night, and manager Davey Martinez was also suspended one game for the incident.
Lopez has appealed, meaning he is eligible to pitch until a hearing takes place, but Martinez was serving his suspension in Thursday’s matinee series finale, with bench coach Miguel Cairo taking the reins.
Lopez his Bryan Reynolds with a pitch in the seventh inning of Wednesday’s loss, then threw over McCutchen’s head three pitches later, and both benches and the bullpens empties after Pirates manager Derek Shelton came out to protest, although no fisticuffs happened.
Lopez was ejected after the bench-clearing moments, but Martinez was not, and MLB ruled Thursday that Lopez’s pitch at McCutchen was intentional – even if the Nats insisted it wasn’t – with Shelton intimating after the game that the Pirates were concerned about retaliation after Paul DeJong was hit in the face Tuesday night.
“It was way too close to his head,” Shelton told reporters. “Bryan had gotten hit two pitches before. And then we go above Cutch’s head? Not a fan of that. And I think the umpires did a really good job of controlling it, knowing the situation. I mean, if this stems from something from yesterday, Mitch did not try to hit Paul DeJong in the face in a 1-0 game. It was totally accidental. If this was retribution for that, then that’s just lack of awareness.”
Lopez pegged it on issues with his delivery, which has seen him allow nine runs and 15 baserunners in 7 2/3 innings – and Martinez also took issue with the ejection after the game.
“I don’t necessarily think it was warranted, but the umpires saw it differently, so they ejected Jorge,” Martinez said. “Unfortunately, it was a good game up to that point, and things got out of hand.”