Carlos Gonzalez says Pirates "clearly" tried to plunk him on purpose

The Colorado Rockies and Pittsburgh had a scuffle, a tiff, a donnybrook, a brouhaha and a baseball game on Saturday night. In a game which saw the benches clear on a tight fastball to Carlos Gonzalez in the sixth, the home team came out on top 7-3.

German Marquez pitched a gem for Denver, going seven strong and quieting a toasty Pirates offense who had won the club six straight ballgames. Marquez sent nine packing on 97 pitches and only was tagged for three hits.

He did, however, tag Francisco Cervelli with a pitch earlier this season which cleared the benches in that contest. On Saturday he hit the ever-so-hot Andrew McCutchen on accident. A night after the Rockies plunked the Pirates four times on Friday. In the bottom half of the sixth came Chad Kuhl’s very tight pitch to CarGo.

Ultimately nothing came of the flared tempers aside from warnings towards both clubs.

The scoring was started by the Pirates for the second straight night as a walk to Josh Harrison was capitalized upon by Andrew McCutchen via a double.

The Rockies didn’t get a hit until Marquez himself put a number there for the Rockies in the third. Charlie Blackmon promptly followed with a doubled and DJ LeMahieu drove in one with a sacrifice fly. Nolan Arenado kept the rally going with an RBI double and Mark Reynolds drove him in which amounted to three in third for the Rockies.

Each team made something of the fourth. First, the Bucs answered with a rocket shot by Bell to cut the lead to one. The Rockies got it right back with a leadoff double by Gonzalez and base knock from Trevor Story.

Colorado had a chance to tack on in the fifth as Arenado headed round third towards home with two outs on a Desmond single but he was gunned by a strong relay throw from Harrison. The Rockies stranded a leadoff single in the sixth as well but first the sixth inning’s fireworks.

McCutchen was beaned in the top of the inning.

“There’s no way he hit him on propose,” Bud Black affirmed after the game.

CarGo strode into the batter’s box in the bottom half, the first pitch from Chad Kuhl was 97 mph at his stomach. He dodged the pitch but took a few steps towards the mound.

“Yeah, people may say it wasn’t on purpose but it clearly was,” Gonzalez said. “First pitch, 97 in and that’s why I reacted like that. But nothing happened.”

Benches clear at Coors Field. @Rockies @Pirates @DenverChannel pic.twitter.com/Y0CMidFPDK

— Lionel Bienvenu (@lionelbienvenu) July 23, 2017

“You never know how you’re going to react (in that situation),” he said. “You don’t come to the park trying to fight, we’re not boxers but every once and again your head gets a little hot.”

Both team’s exchanged shoves but nothing escalated out of hand.

“This is a good team as far as having each other’s backs, I know that will continue,” Black said. “They very much have each other’s back.”

“We’re not trying to do anything,” Gonzalez said. “We’re trying to play baseball… you have to turn the page… you don’t want to create problems you want to play ball.”

On the very next pitch CarGo knocked that single which was stranded.

The seventh saw Marquez throw his final inning. He was pretty much clean after the homer to Bell, setting down 12 of his last 13 batters faced. In the bottom half Blackmon led off with a triple, Ian Desmond eventually came through with an RBI single to extend it to a three run lead.

Jake McGee got himself into some trouble in the eighth. The Rockies first reliever saw the first two men reach. But he doubled up Harrison to lower the leverage. Yet, he walked the next one bringing in Greg Holland for his first four out save. He finished the eighth quickly and gave the Rockies bats another shot.

Clutch hits from LeMahieu and Alexi Amarista drove in two, which would very much help a stifling Holland in the ninth. The Rockies closer had the bases jammed with only one out. Eventually, the tying run came to the dish but he escaped recording MLB-leading save No. 31.