The day after Kyle Freeland got the thumb, Rockies interim manager Warren Schaeffer had Freeland’s back.
Colorado’s veteran left-handed starter was ejected in the first inning of Tuesday night’s game between the Rockies and Giants at Coors Field. The Giants won, 7-4, sending the Rockies to their 100th loss — their third 100-loss season in a row.
When Freeland served up a towering two-run shot to Rafael Devers two batters into the game, the Rockies’ lefty interrupted Devers’ slow home run trot and dramatic bat flip, aggressively urging him to hurry it up. What started as a war of words quickly evolved into a bench-clearing fracas.
On Wednesday, Schaffer wanted to make it clear that he supported Freeland.
“(Devers) watched it for a while, longer than Kyle liked, and Kyle took offense to it, and felt disrespected,” Schaeffer said before the teams played their final game of a three-game series. “I back him 100% on that. … Sometimes those things happen, even if they happen in the first inning when you don’t expect it to happen. I will always back Kyle.”
Wednesday afternoon, Major League Baseball suspended San Francisco third baseman Matt Chapman one game and imposed an undisclosed fine for pushing Freeland. Chapman’s suspension was scheduled to begin on Wednesday, but Chapman appealed. He can continue playing until his appeal is heard.
Fines were also issued to Freeland, as well as the Giants’ Willy Adames and Devers.
“Extremely disrespectful to show me up like that in the first inning after hitting a home run. Standing there, watching it, taking your sweet time getting down to first base,” Freeland said after Tuesday’s game, emphasizing that he would understand if the celebration occurred after a clutch home run in the late innings. “I’ve been in this league quite some time, and I know he has as well. I just find that extremely disrespectful, and I felt that I needed to let him know about that.”
The Giants, of course, saw things differently.
“Guys these days are doing a lot worse than what ‘Rafi’ did, watching home runs,” manager Bob Melvin said.
Devers said he was confused by Freeland’s reaction.
“I don’t know why he got like that. I didn’t do anything wrong,” he told reporters through an interpreter. “I mean, I did the same thing I do every time I hit a home run.”
Logan Webb, San Francisco’s starting pitcher Tuesday night, took a shot at Freeland.
“I mean, I’m surprised it hasn’t happened before with that guy,” Webb said. “Just kinda runs his mouth a lot of times. Rafi got him good.”
The loss made Colorado the first franchise since the 2011-13 Houston Astros to lose 100 games in three consecutive seasons.
“Was tonight 100?” Schaeffer said afterward.
The Giants scored all seven runs via the long ball in Tuesday night’s win.
Devers’ homer was the first. His freshly flipped bat barely had any time to cool down on the grass before tempers heated up around it. The former Red Sox slugger shouted back at Freeland and veered away from the base path. Dugouts and bullpens emptied.
What followed probably wouldn’t qualify as a brawl according to the old-school definition of the word — but it did include a series of shoves, instigated by Chapman on Freeland. Then it was a mess of hands indistinguishable from one another. In the end, Freeland, Chapman and Adames (responsible for a second mini-skirmish) were thrown out.
“I was slightly surprised to be ejected,” Freeland said. “I understand that I was the one who instigated it, so that right there is grounds for ejection. I understand that. Slightly surprised, but also not, because I understand the rules.”
Devers was sent back to first base to belatedly finish his home run trot while Antonio Senzatela warmed up to replace Freeland, even though Freeland said afterward that Devers also shoved him.
“I don’t know why Chapman and Adames got ejected. I’m assuming it was because they came up and shoved me,” Freeland said. “Devers also shoved me. That’s the spot that I don’t understand why he wasn’t ejected.”
The Rockies stayed within arm’s reach all night but couldn’t overcome the initial blow from Devers. Senzatela almost made it through five scoreless innings, only for his gutsy long-relief appearance to be thwarted with two outs and two strikes in the fifth by Casey Schmitt, who entered the game to replace the ejected Adames. He homered at the end of a long at-bat, giving San Francisco a 3-1 lead and causing Schaeffer to go back to his bullpen.
“I hurt the bullpen extremely bad tonight, doing that, getting ejected in the first inning, eight pitches in,” Freeland said. “But Senzy did a phenomenal job, eating innings for the bullpen to save them as much as possible. I have to tip my cap to him for doing that.”
Umpire Dan Bellino told a pool reporter that the crew discussed whether or not Devers should’ve been denied his home run for abandoning the bases to confront Freeland.
“It’s an interesting rule,” Bellino said. “It’s one of those 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 abandoning or anything like that.”
With 23 contests remaining entering Wednesday night’s game, the Rockies still need three wins to pass the 2024 White Sox and avoid the all-time single-season losses record. They need nine wins to avoid the 115-loss club, which consists of six teams in the modern era.
But Freeland shut down the notion that Colorado’s frustrating season had anything to do with his reaction to Devers.
“It was the pure disrespect of a first-inning home run, standing there, watching it,” he said. “Felt like it took 15 seconds to get to first base. I don’t respect you doing that, coming into my ballpark and doing that to me.”
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