Major League Baseball announced on Thursday that they have issued a three-game suspension to Washington Nationals reliever Jorge López for “intentionally throwing at outfielder Andrew McCutchen of the Pittsburgh Pirates” during Wednesday night’s game.
Nationals manager Dave Martinez has also been suspended one game, with López and Martinez both fined as a result of the incident, which resulted in a benches-clearing brawl in the bottom of the seventh inning of the Pirates’ 6-1 win.
The incident in question occurred with the Pirates leading 2-0; with two outs and runners on first and second in the bottom of the seventh inning, López first hit DH Bryan Reynolds in the side with a 93 mph fastball. The next batter up, McCutchen, faced a 1-1 count when he had to dive out of the way of a 92.2 mph fastball high and inside, narrowly missing McCutchen’s head. The near-miss triggered both benches to clear (no punches were thrown) and López was ejected from the game. The tense moment followed an incident the day before, when Pirates pitcher Mitch Keller struck Nationals infielder Paul DeJong in the head with a fastball, fracturing his nose.
López issued an apology after the game, telling The Washington Post that both pitches got away from him and he wasn’t trying to hit either batter: “I apologize for everything … I didn’t make any purpose pitch right there. I’ve been trying to find my way with my delivery, been trying to find my way through the whole season. It’s really miserable to have that happen. I regret what just happened.”
López allowed two hits and four runs over 2/3 innings in Wednesday’s loss. He owns a 10.57 ERA through eight appearances this season.
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