Benches Clear Between Pittsburgh Pirates and Washington Nationals

It’s one of the most exciting things to witness in baseball when the benches clear. The Pittsburgh Pirates and Washington Nationals did a restrained version of that Wednesday night. While it doesn’t happen too often, it’s truly something to take in. Most of the time, they just stand and yell at each other, but from time to time, there’s some real action in the scrum. What caused the benches to clear in Pittsburgh?

Benches Clear In Pittsburgh

In the bottom of the 7th inning, with the Pirates up 2-0, Jorge Lopez buzzed a ball a little too high and inside, forcing Andrew McCutchen to dive to the ground. It was centimeters from hitting him in the head. It didn’t help that Lopez had hit Bryan Reynolds one batter earlier. 

It doesn’t seem like there was any intent, just a lack of control. Reynolds was in the left-handed box, and McCutchen was on the right side. Lopez maintains that he did not make those pitches on purpose, but tried his adjustment, citing trying to find his way with his delivery. Entering the game, Lopez was carrying a subpar 6.43 ERA. 

At first, nothing happened, but Lopez and McCutchen started barking at each other, which prompted both benches to run out to protect their teammates. There wasn’t any shoving or punches thrown, just some adrenaline-induced yelling. Lopez wasn’t ejected at first, but the umpiring crew came together after everything died down and decided to toss him.

Nothing to See Here

Pitching inside is a part of the game, and sometimes they get away from the pitcher. Hit batters are nothing new either. It is just an unfortunate part of the game. With this incident, there wasn’t any intention, and the benches-clearing “brawl” was nothing more than some raised voices in close proximity. Baseball is a team sport, and you bet the teams will stand up for each other.