Major League Baseball announced Thursday that Nationals reliever Jorge Lopez and manager Davey Martinez have received suspensions after a Lopez fastball to Andrew McCutchen sailed high-and-tight, nearly hitting McCutchen in the head. Lopez has received a three-game suspension, which he will appeal. Martinez was suspended for one game and will serve that punishment today. (Managers cannot appeal suspensions of this nature.) Bench coach Miguel Cairo will manage in his place.
The errant pitch to McCutchen eventually prompted both benches to clear. Tensions had already been high. Mitch Keller had hit Nats infielder Paul DeJong in the face a day prior, breaking his nose and sending him to the injured list. Lopez had first hit Pittsburgh outfielder Bryan Reynolds with a pitch before losing the handle on another offering to McCutchen, the very next batter. Lopez was ejected from the game.
The league’s announcement indicates they believe Lopez to have been “intentionally throwing” at McCutchen. Lopez has denied that, and even McCutchen himself suggested after the game that he didn’t believe there was intent behind the pitch.
“It’s just the nature of the situation,” McCutchen replied when asked postgame about the incident (video link via MLB.com). “Take it as is, even if it wasn’t on purpose, which I don’t think it was. I think the height of the moment just got to him, maybe. One got away from him, similar to [Keller]. … Just thankful I was able to move out of the way.”
Command troubles aren’t exactly new for Lopez. He’s walked 10.5% of his opponents this season, hit another pair of batters, and has been charged with a wild pitch. That all comes in just 7 2/3 innings of work. Dating back to 2021, Lopez has pitched 312 1/3 big league innings and walked nearly 10% of the batters he’s faced. He’s also hit another 29 batters — 2.1% of his opponents, well north of league-average — and been charged with 22 wild pitches.
Signed to a one-year, $3MM contract over the winter, Lopez got out to a nice start with the Nats before stumbling in his past two outings. Through his first six frames, he held opponents to a pair of runs on four hits and two walks with five strikeouts. He’s since been tagged for seven runs in a total of just 1 2/3 innings, ballooning his earned run average to 10.57 on the young season.
Lopez logged a 2.89 ERA, 23% strikeout rate, 8.8% walk rate and 51% grounder rate in 53 innings between the Mets and Cubs last season. He collected 10 holds and four saves along the way. In 183 innings from 2022-24, he recorded a 3.74 earned run average with 30 saves and 21 holds.