Devers Applauded for Payback on Rockies $64.5M Star Who Sparked Bench Brawl Over Bizarre Reason

A beautiful evening at Coors Field quickly turned ugly when the Giants slugger Rafael Devers launched his 30th homer of the season off Colorado Rockies starting pitcher Kyle Freeland on Tuesday. Devers took a moment to admire his 397-foot blast at the eighth pitch of the game, and Rockies starting pitcher Kyle Freeland immediately began yelling at Devers.

Devers yelled back, and he started walking toward the mound. After that, both benches and bullpens emptied onto the field, and Giants infielders Matt Chapman and Willy Adames charged in. Chapman pushed Freeland, and Adames appeared to throw a punch. Then Freeland, Chapman, and Adames were all ejected from the game after an eight-minute delay.

After the game, Freeland admitted that his ego was bruised by Devers’ home run trot, saying, “I just, you know, found it extremely disrespectful to, you know, show me up like that in the first inning after, after hitting a home run.” Then the 32-year-old southpaw said, “Standing there watching it. Um, taking your sweet time getting down to first base… I just find that extremely disrespectful and uh, felt that I needed to let him know about that.”

Giants starter Logan Webb offered a blunt line about why the clash was a long time coming, backing Raffy’s payback. “I’m surprised it hasn’t happened before with that guy,” Webb said. “Um, just kind of runs his mouth a lot of times and um, you know, Raffy, Raffy got him good, so. Whatever.”

Rockies interim manager Warren Schaeffer tried to downplay the incident, saying, “A guy like Free, he’s been pitching for a long time. And I think he felt disrespected.” And added, “Those things happen sometimes. Part of the game.” 

Neither player entered the fight as a stranger, as Rafael Devers hit his 30th homer, boosting a .263 average and .874 OPS, and had driven in 96 runs on the season. And a dramatic trade landed him in San Francisco in the middle of the season. And most recently, he went 13-for-28(slash line of .464/.545/1.071) with 5 homers in his last 7 games.

On the other hand, the Rockies’ $64.5 million pitcher has a 3-14 record and a 5.28 ERA overall. And the most disappointing was his 1-6 record with 6.71 ERA at Coors Field. And this frustration was clearly a catalyst for any kind of brawl.

Giants take victory and set new heights

After the chaos, the game finally continued with the Giants leading 2-0, and they never lost the lead. Casey Schmitt, Wilmer Flores, and Patrick Bailey all added home runs for the Giants later in the game and extended their team record by hitting a homer in their 16th straight game in a 7-4 win. That pushes their season record to 70-69, keeping them just 5 games out of a Wild Card spot.

On the other hand, with this loss, the Rockies recorded their third straight season with 100 losses. Only catcher Hunter Goodman was decent for the night, collecting three hits, including his 27th home run of the season.

And in this season, as in every other season, Baseball has seen several heated moments like this. And due to this, through September 1st, MLB recorded 76 manager ejections, 24 coaches tossed, and 44 player ejections and incidents are part of a very emotional season. As of this writing, MLB has not publicly announced fines or suspensions related to the fight. The league may review video and then determine penalties for each player. But until then, what do you think of this recent brawl? Let us know in the comments below!