All it took was one careless step to turn up the heat between the Washington Nationals and the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field.

Kyle Freeland took the mound for the Colorado Rockies in the series opener on Monday. In the top of the fifth inning, Freeland recorded the first out by retiring Nationals designated hitter Andrés Chaparro on a lineout to center fielder Cole Carrigg. As Chaparro jogged back to the Nationals’ dugout, his foot grazed the side of the pitcher’s mound. Irritated, Freeland called out Chaparro, prompting both benches to clear. Players from both teams poured onto the field, exchanging pushes and shoves before the situation eventually settled down. Jomboy Media later posted the entire sequence on Instagram.

“Rockies pitcher Kyle Freeland was not happy that Nationals DH Andres Chaparro stepped on the pitcher’s mound,” Jomboy Media wrote on Instagram.

The broadcast cameras caught Freeland warning Chaparro to stay away from the mound over what he considered a breach of baseball conduct.

“Get off the f—g mound. That’s my fu-king mound,” Freeland said.

However, the Nationals’ DH did not appear to get involved in further argument and headed back towards the dugout.

The benches-clearing incident before CJ Abrams’ at-bat did not escalate any further. As the players refrained from throwing punches, umpires ejected none, and play resumed with the score knotted at 3-3. Freeland did quick work of Abrams and Dylan Crews to end the inning.

During the game, Freeland struggled early before he recovered enough to throw six innings. In the first inning, the veteran LHP put the Rockies in a 0-3 hole, as he gave up a 3-run homer to Chaparro. He put runners on base with a leadoff walk to James Wood and allowed a single to Curtis Mead.

Colorado also promptly loaded the bases with one out as Andrew Alvarez allowed a leadoff single to Jake McCarthy. However, it was futile as Alvarez escaped the jam by retiring TJ Rumfield and Willi Castro to end the inning.

It took the Rockies until the bottom of the third inning to tie the game. Castro’s bases-loaded double drove in McCarthy, Rumfield, and Carrigg. After that, Freeland allowed just one more run, a solo homer by Jacob Young. He was pulled after the sixth inning.

If you take a closer look, you’ll see that Freeland has struggled all season. Monday night’s loss raised his ERA to 7.28 and dropped his record to 2-9. The 33-year-old is currently in the final year of his five-year, $64.5 million contract extension.

Meanwhile, after taking the middle game of the series, the Rockies collapsed Wednesday, dropping to 41-63.

Nationals shut out the Rockies to take the rubber game

After losing the series opener to the visitors, the Washington Nationals, the Rockies came back with an 8-7 victory on Tuesday. However, the next day, their offense and bullpen could not back Gabriel Hughes on his strong start.

Through 5.0 innings, Hughes scattered five hits and one run to Jorbit Vivas on a sacrifice fly. When he left, the game was still within reach, with the Nationals leading 1-0. But the Nationals’ hitters completely battered relievers Jimmy Herget and Zach Agnos with a six-run seventh inning to take the game away.

In the top of the seventh, Vivas walked to put runners on base. Then, on Nasim Nuñez’s single, Lile and Vivas both scored as Mickey Moniak helped with a fielding error. Their effort put the Nationals on a 3-0 lead. Luis Garcia extended the lead with a two-run homer before Agnos took over. But the Rockies’ woes did not end.

Agnos gave up three straight singles to Jose Tena, Abrams and Crews. Throwing errors by Carrigg and Brett Sullivan helped Tena and Abrams score, while Crews reached safely to third. The inning ended with the Nationals leading 7-0.

While the Rockies bullpen allowed another run to complete the damage, Cade Cavalli kept Colorado’s offense quiet. In six scoreless innings, he allowed 2 walks and 4 hits while striking out eight.

Sitting at the bottom of the league, the Rockies will face the Milwaukee Brewers next.