Nationals right-hander Jason Marquis has been suspended five games, and manager Jim Riggleman has been suspended one game by Major League Baseball for their roles in Sunday's beanball war in Arizona.
Marquis has appealed his suspension and thus will be able to continue playing until a hearing takes place. Riggleman will serve his suspension tonight in San Francisco, with bench coach John McLaren filling in as manager against the Giants.MLB senior vice president of standards and on-field operations Joe Garagiola Jr. issued the suspensions after reviewing the incidents from Sunday's game. Garagiola also suspended Diamondbacks reliever Esmerling Vasquez three games and manager Kirk Gibson one game for their roles. Vasquez has appealed; Gibson will serve his suspension tonight.
Sunday's beanball war came at the conclusion of a series full of bad blood between the two clubs. Arizona right fielder Justin Upton was hit four times by pitches during the four-game series. Nationals right fielder Jayson Werth was hit three times.
Werth's third plunking (on a fifth-inning pitch from Diamondbacks
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21 comments:
If the commissioner's office would even care to do an unbiased ruling they should review the at bat just before Upton's. In that at bat Marquis obviously exhibited control problems with pitches tailing way off the plate to the right side. The pitch that hit Upton was very similar to the previous pitches to the left handed batter. But whatever, the umpire is always right and if not the "muzzle" gets put on the aggrieved party.
Coincidental minors.
Mark,
I know this is off-topic but I am a HUGE Nats fan and I live near Syracuse, NY. Do you think Zimmerman will make his way up here to finish his re-hab? I figured the Nats would like him to face pitching that is close to the major league level before he returns to DC. I understand that Potomac is close to DC but I would love to see him up here for a game or two.
Say it ain't so, Joe (G., that is).
On another topic.... Bryce's antics took the spotlight away from another fantastic outing by Robbie Ray. Just check out his stats on the Hagerstown website.
What a freakin' ridiculous ruling.This was so one sided as far as intent went. If they are going to hand down rulings like this then it is obvious they are not studying the game and/or the situation and if that is what they are going to do then it might as well be automatic and stop the charade of there being any sort of fairness and or justice.
Idiots.
NaterialGuy,
Don't be naive. We hit Upton 4 times. You there was no intent on our side?
Doesn't Garagiola's father do the D-Backs games? Hmmm.
@JD Yes I truly believe, especially in the game in question there was no intent whatsoever. These are pretty smart guys. There would have been absolutely nothing to gain by hitting them. Nothing. If there is 0 motive then I think it is a fairy safe assumption that there was no intent.
Mark, Completely off topic, but hope you are reading. Stras was just on the 6 O'clock show on the MLB Network - I think On Deck Circle - he says he has been throwing from the bullpen mound and feels good. He says he is shooting for the 1 year mark and he he sounded UPBEAT and GREAT! Hopefully you can get an update on his status
Naterial,
The motive was that they hit Werth a bunch of times. It started out with the Nats hitting Upton accidentally (I believe during the first game) and it escalated to where they were throwing at Werth constantly and we were throwing at Upton. I think there was mutual intent the whole way.
I happen to condone what Marquis did; he has to show his team mates that he has their backs but let's not pretend that they are the devil and we are a bunch of boy scouts.
Mark - Vasquez only got 3 games, I think because he's a reliever and Marquis is a starter (and pinch runner). Goal is to miss an equivalent amount of playing time. Stil complete BS and poorly handled by the umpiring crew.
NatsJack. Comments from Bryce to Tom Verducci of SI was that the opposing pitcher was antagonizing the entire team. If he got someone out, then he would glare into the dugout. Byrce "said" he was sticking up for his team mates, because the nonsense had been going on all night.
MicheleS.... I wasn't down on him for his "antics"..... just using it as a term to describe the distraction. I posted this morning that I "kinda liked it".
But do check out Robbie Rays stats.
NatsJack,
Saw your earlier posts, just showing that some of us (me included), didn't have the whole side of the story -you kind of liked - I didn't like. Saw Robbie's stats, and too bad they got overshadowed by "the kiss". Unfortunately, with the time that we live in with only getting snipits of info, we don't get the whole picture.
I truly don't know how Marquis gets a worse suspension than the Giants' guys do. Not to mention the umpire who yanked Marquis but let TWO PLUNKINGS OF OUR GUYS go unpunished. This is not right.
Three games for a reliever IS a bigger suspension than one game for a starter.
Marquis will drop his appeal before Monday, an off day. Marquis will drop down one spot in the rotation and the other starters will get their normal days between starts.
The D-Backs bullpen will be a man short for 3 days while Vasquez serves his suspension.
That's one way to look at it. The other way is a good outing for a starter is 6+ innings. A good outing for a middle reliever is 2 innings. 3 games in relief = 6 innings of lost pitching. 1 start = 6 innings of lost pitching.
Regardless, it's unfair to suspend Marquis and they should have suspended every Diamondback who hit a Nat the entire series. How's that for crystaline logic?
If memory serves, the Nats signed Robbie Ray for above slot, but "only" to the tune of about 700K....
I know its early, but this may turn out to be a VERY shrewd above slot signing bonus...
What say you, NatsJack?
All other insider denizens....feel free to respond...
I really feel that the unfairness here is that the D-backs got 3 FREE shots, because Kennedy INTENTIONALY hit Werth first, then both benches were warned. Then we hit Upton accidentally, and get our manager and SP ejected. Certainly no justice there. Then Kennedy hits Morse again, no ejection. Why NOT? Then Vasquez tags Espinosa, ejected. But Patterson plunks Espi AGAIN and no ejection.
REALLY? And Gibson, "Mr. Fist-Pump-Around-the-Bases" was ticked off that Ramos, who had just fouled a ball off his shin, was taking 5 extra seconds to round the bases, right after they plunked Espi? REALLY? REALLY? He is a classless jerk, the kind of guy who berates his little-leaguer for striking out.
Gibson deserves a 10 game suspension so he can go to anger management class. When the D-bags come to DC, we shall see what transpires. All I can say is that Riggleman had BETTER hit first, just so Gibson gets the ejection, because you know he is going to hit our guys.
Some interesting comments from Marquis over on the Times blog (currently linked to at left). Speaking only for myself, I did not think that the Marquis' HBP was intentional when I saw it. I figured he may have been thinking more like complete game shutout at that point.
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