In one of the most absurd decisions I have ever seen in my years of watching baseball, Washington Nationals reliever Jorge López has been suspended for 3 games for "intentionally throwing at Andrew McCutchen." which he will appeal. Additionally, Nationals manager Davey Martinez has also been suspended for 1 game, which he will serve in today's series finale against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
This is ridiculous. First of all, the entire sentiment that Jorge López, a reliever who is struggling for his job currently, would intentionally throw at batters in a winnable 2-0 game in the 7th inning is completely ridiculous. In case you missed what happened on Wednesday night in Pittsburgh, López hit Bryan Reynolds with a pitch before nearly hitting Andrew McCutchen with a pitch immediately afterwards.
López being wild caused the benches and bullpens of both teams to clear, although nothing major took place in the fracas. Apparently, López surrendered homers to both Reynolds and McCutchen last season, which was the reason why he would be intentionally throwing at guys in a 2-0 game. To make matters worse, Orlando Ribalta would come in after López was ejected from the game and would walk McCutchen before giving up a grand slam to Oneil Cruz, putting the game out of reach for the Nationals as they fell 6-0.
As the game got out of hand, López would be charged with 3 of the 4 runs that scored on the homer, and gave up 4 overall in that 7th inning, raising his ERA to 10.57 on the season. It is utterly ridiculous that López, a reliever who has struggled this season but still factors into the Nationals' A-Bullpen as a setup man, is now being suspended for 3 games for something that anyone watching the game would agree was not intentional.
I would not be surprised if the benches were to clear again today, as this has set an unbelievable precedent for today's game. The thought that a reliever would throw at a pair of hitters in a 2-0 game just because of something that happened last season makes absolutely no sense. To any Pirates fans who believe it was intentional, need I remind you that we literally had a player in Paul DeJong get hit in the face with a fastball not even 24 hours before that? Yet there was nobody claiming that was intentional, because common sense tends to prevail. If López was dead set on losing the Nationals the game with his actions, he would already be gone from the roster if the team had any sense that he chose a personal vendetta over the good of the team.
Finally, I would also like to point out that to this day, ZERO Houston Astros players from the 2017 team that was literally exposed for cheating the game have ever been suspended for any games. Great job here, MLB, you guys totally nailed this one!
What do you think of the Jorge López suspension? As always, please let me know on X, @DCBerk.