Arenado charges mound, Rockies beat Padres 6-4
DENVER (AP) — Nolan Arenado nearly connected for a couple of huge hits.
Furious with a fastball that buzzed behind his back, the Colorado slugger immediately charged the mound. And he came out wildly swinging at pitcher Luis Perdomo.
Arenado’s rush set off a heated fracas in the third inning that led to five ejections during a testy game in which the Rockies beat the San Diego Padres 6-4 on Wednesday.
“They thought they had to do something,” Arenado said. “I thought I had to do something, too. That’s kind of why I went out there.”
Perdomo flung his glove at the bolting Arenado and missed. Arenado then threw a couple of big punches at the backpedaling Perdomo, but didn’t land anything squarely.
The All-Star third baseman’s reaction certainly woke up the slumbering Colorado bats, with the Rockies scoring five times in the inning to take a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
“We won today and that’s all that mattered,” Arenado said. The tension between these two NL West teams started boiling a night earlier at Coors Field when Padres outfielder Manuel Margot got hit in the ribs by a pitch, putting him on the disabled list.
The problems festered early on in the series finale, with Colorado’s Trevor Story being plunked in the first and San Diego’s Hunter Renfroe in the second. That set the stage for Arenado, who didn’t take kindly to Perdomo’s pitch, as the benches cleared and the relievers sprinted in from the bullpen.
“I had a feeling they could do it to someone,” said Arenado, who expects to be suspended. “I didn’t think it would be me.”
An incensed Arenado began screaming at Padres catcher A.J. Ellis, leading to San Diego bench coach Mark McGwire holding the All-Star third baseman back.
Rockies starter German Marquez got involved by throwing a towel and Colorado outfielder Gerardo Parra looked as if he threw a punch.