MLB suspends López three games, Martinez one game

PITTSBURGH – Major League Baseball has suspended Nationals reliever Jorge López three games "for intentionally throwing at Andrew McCutchen of the Pirates" and manager Davey Martinez one game in the wake of Wednesday night’s incident.

López has appealed his suspension and remains eligible to pitch until a hearing takes place. Managers are not permitted to appeal suspensions, so Martinez will be forced to sit out today’s series finale at PNC Park, with bench coach Miguel Cairo taking over.

With one out in the bottom of the seventh Wednesday night and the Nationals trailing 2-0, López hit Pirates left fielder Bryan Reynolds with a pitch. He then threw a wayward fastball over McCutchen’s head three pitches later, prompting Pittsburgh manager Derek Shelton to come out of the dugout to complain.

That spurred both teams’ benches and bullpens to empty, though nothing close to a punch was ever thrown. Once everything settled down and everyone retreated to their respective sides, the umpiring crew huddled up and decided to eject López, much to the right-hander’s shock.

No warnings were ever issued by the umpires, and Martinez was not ejected from the game.

The Pirates seemed to worry López was retaliating after Mitch Keller struck Paul DeJong in the face with a fastball Tuesday night, sending DeJong to the hospital and the injured list with a fractured nose.

“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.”

The Nationals insisted there was no purpose behind either pitch, with López clearly frustrated by his season-long struggles: He has allowed nine runs and nine hits with four walks and two hit batters in 7 2/3 innings.

“I’ve been trying to find my way with my delivery,” he said. “I tried to find my way through the whole season. And it’s really miserable that happened. I regret what just happened.”

López also insisted this had nothing to do with the back-to-back homers he surrendered to Reynolds and McCutchen last September while pitching for the Cubs.

“Hell, no,” he said. “It’s seven months.”

Martinez spoke with crew chief Ron Kulpa after López was ejected but didn’t put up much fight once given an explanation.

“I don’t necessarily think it was warranted, but the umpires saw it differently, so they ejected Jorge,” the manager said after the game. “Unfortunately, it was a good game up to that point, and things got out of hand.”

With López ejected, Martinez summoned Eduardo Salazar from the bullpen to take over McCutchen’s at-bat. The right-hander proceeded to walk McCutchen to load the bases, then served up a grand slam to Oneil Cruz that turned a tight, 2-0 game into a lopsided, 6-0 game.