The Giants’ 7-4 win over the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday night at Coors Field produced lots of highlights and just as many questions.
Before most fans could get comfortable in their seats, Rafael Devers crushed a moonshot two-run homer. But Rockies starter Kyle Freeland took exception to the Giants star admiring his work, leading to a benches-clearing brawl.
In the aftermath, Freeland was ejected, along with Giants third baseman Matt Chapman and shortstop Willy Adames, for their actions in the kerfuffle.
Devers wasn’t ejected and after a lengthy delay as the umpires discussed the situation, he was allowed to complete his home run trot.
After the game, The Athletic’s Andrew Baggarly served as the pool reporter and spoke to umpire Dan Bellino about the incident.
Editor’s note: The following transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity:
Baggarly: “Can you just run through the reasons for each player’s being ejected?”
Bellino: “Well, the pitcher was removed after his actions in the bench-clearing. Obviously, his reaction was, you know, he was an instigator, same with Chapman. He was an instigator, and Adames, while initially he was not one of the instigators, he prolonged the bench-clearing situation by instigating a second melee.”
Baggarly: “And with Chapman specifically, was it the shove counted as the instigation?
Bellino: “I would say just his actions in general, it was overly aggressive.”
Baggarly: “Just out of curiosity, are you working in concert with the video replay room?”
Bellino: “No.”
Baggarly: “It’s what you guys see on the field?”
Bellino: “Yes. That is something we are actually not allowed to go to replay review to assist in bench-clearing situations. I think that’s through the players’ association. That’s something that the players’ association, they do not want us to have the replay review make those decisions. It has to be the [on-field] umpires.”
Baggarly: “And we’re warnings issued?”
Bellino: “Yes.”
Baggarly: “Devers, did he leave the base path or was there any reasoning or any way that there was a thought that maybe he could have been called out for leaving the base paths?”
Bellino: “It’s an interesting rule. It’s one of those that you don’t see hardly ever. We discussed it, but ultimately, because it was a dead-ball situation, we did not deem it to be an abandoning or anything like that.”
Baggarly: “And then, if [Devers] had been ejected, or if his actions had warranted an ejection at that point, would a pinch-runner have had to enter for him to complete his home run trot or what would have happened?”
Bellino: “No. Yeah, we wouldn’t do that.”
Baggarly: “Would he have been credited with a home run still?”
Bellino: “I believe, yes.”
The Giants now will await word from MLB if Chapman or Adames face further discipline for their actions.
Manager Bob Melvin would prefer the league take a lenient approach to the situation, considering the Giants are fighting for an NL wild-card spot.
“I hope MLB understands,” Melvin told reporters after the game. “Hopefully this isn’t significant for these two guys.”
Devers has homered in the first two games of the series in Denver and three consecutive contests overall, and after Tuesday’s incident, it’s a safe bet that if he goes deep in Wednesday’s series finale, he won’t be shy about taking his time rounding the bases.
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