The Pittsburgh Pirates may have gone down in the 2015 NL Wild Card Game without scoring a single run, but they didn’t do so without a fight. Both benches cleared in the seventh inning Wednesday night when Pirates reliever Tony Watson hit Chicago Cubs ace Jake Arrieta with a pitch.
No punches were thrown in the melee, but multiple players from both sides were seen pushing and shoving.
Pittsburgh’s Sean Rodriguez was the only player tossed for his actions. A parody account has already been set up for the poor, unsuspecting Gatorade cooler Rodriguez attacked in the aftermath:
After the game, Rodriguez made some strong accusations against Cubs catcher David Ross, per Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports:
Of course, none of us have ever hit an object in a fit of rage. That would be crazy. Wait…you mean we’ve all done it? Probably within the not-too-distant past? Oh, OK, take it away, Andrew Siciliano of NFL Network:
Kristen Balboni of Fox Sports commented on Rodriguez’s resemblance to his team’s nickname:
Baseball isn’t for everyone. Dudes knocking out water coolers, however, can make a fan out of nearly anyone. Just not Yahoo Sports’ Dan Wetzel:
Peter Burns of ESPN also wasn’t impressed:
If you wanted to know what a “real” baseball brawl looks like, Tim Ryan of the Sports Hernia has us covered:
Even if none of the Pirates or Cubs will be confused with Ronda Rousey, the skirmish at the very least offered excitement in a game that was a one-sided snoozefest. Pittsburgh couldn’t hit Arrieta all night with its bats, so it took a shot with a ball. Based on the reaction, that didn’t go exactly as planned, either.
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