Bryce Harper ejected in Nats' 9-4 11-inning loss to Rockies

The Rockies thwarted the Nationals' comeback in the ninth inning, scoring five runs in the 11th to win 9-4.

The five-run outburst came immediately after Bryce Harper was ejected in the bottom of the 10th. It was the eighth time in his career that Harper had been tossed, and the second ejection this season.

Frustration clearly got to the Nationals cleanup hitter in the 10th inning and contributed to the short bench later in the game. Leading off the 10th, Harper was called out on a low and outside 2-2 pitch from reliever Jake McGee.

Home plate umpire Mike Winters called it a strike and Harper exploded, slamming his bat and helmet down and then vehemently arguing the call. Winters quickly tossed Harper. Harper got right in the face of Winters as he continued to argue the call before finally heading to the dugout.

"When you're in a game like that, 4-4 in the 10th, you get to a 2-2 count, he throws a pitch off the plate, which they said a strike, which was a ball," Harper said. "I was reading it all the way in. If you look at the tape, I was looking down at the ball the whole way into the glove and it was just, you know, it was off the plate.

"I could possibly see one more pitch and maybe hit a homer or a double or walk, I could even strike out. But I just wanted to see that last pitch and I never got there. It just shouldn't happen. Just bad behind there. It's not a strike."

Manager Dusty Baker said he didn't believe Harper got upset because of the way Winters had called the game early on.

"Frustration usually mounts over a period of time," Baker said. "There wasn't frustration I don't think with Mike Winters, it was a frustration over a period of time. Everybody blows up from time to time. Just glad that we had (Chris) Heisey, an extra player that I could put in there. So these things happen. Especially it happens this time of year. Tempers are short, it's hot, played a lot of games, been around the same people for a long period of time. This is the time of year when tempers do flare up."

Left fielder Jayson Werth had a short but meaningful response when asked about the Harper ejection.

"I've been kicked out of one game my whole career," Werth said. "Bryce, on the other hand, has been kicked out of multiple."

Did Harper feel bad about leaving his team short-handed following the ejection?

"I know we had a short bench," Harper said. "I think going into it, you don't ever want to get ejected, but you don't want an umpire to make a mistake in that big of a situation. That's just not good. I wanted to see that last pitch. We could have possibly not played the 11th or the 12th or whatever. We lost the game and we've got to keep going for tomorrow and see where we're at."

The Rockies scored five runs on seven hits in the 11th frame, benefitting from a throwing error and a wild pitch.

The inning got so bad for reliever Yusmeiro Petit that the Nats bullpen was empty in right field, even though Koda Glover and Shawn Kelley had yet to pitch in the game.

Baker said the extra innings put the bullpen in another tough spot. The Rockies smacked a pair of two run shots in the frame, courtesy of Charlie Blackmon and Carlos Gonzalez, to put the game out of reach.

"We felt badly for Yusmerio because we had to leave him in there, he was our last pitcher," Baker said. "We didn't have Glover and we were trying to stay away from (Mark) Melancon because that was his third day in a row and we didn't have Kelley.

"We were down to our last player, we had no more players on the bench and that was our last player. I don't know who was going to pitch if he didn't get out of that inning. He took one for the team, so to speak.

"We didn't play very good defense sometimes, and then other times, we played outstanding defense to turn a couple key double plays."

The Nationals had a shot to win the game in the bottom of the ninth. After Werth's RBI single, he went to second base on the throw home. Daniel Murphy then delivered a hard hit grounder to second that ended the inning.

"I can't believe they pitched to Murphy, and it almost cost them because he hit a rocket to the second baseman would have ended the game, so maybe just wasn't ours to win," Baker said.