St. Louis Cardinals right-hander Carlos Martinez let his emotions get the best of him against the Rockies Thursday night. (The Associated Press)
St. Louis — It’s not like this is the Giants-Dodgers or the Yankees-Red Sox, for heaven’s sake. But St. Louis Cardinals starter Carlos Martinez stirred up some hard feelings from the Rockies Thursday night.
Here, is how it went down. Followed by reaction from players after the game:
Tempers flared in the fifth. Cardinals starting pitcher Carlos Martinez, perhaps unaccustomed to the way the Rockies were hitting him around the yard, plunked DJ LeMahieu in the left hip, loading the bases. The usually cool LeMahieu, who singled in his first two at-bats, became incensed and had to be restrained — first by (catcher Yadier) Molina, then by Colorado first-base coach Eric Young.
The inning ended on a double-play grounder to second by Ben Paulsen, after which Martinez slammed his glove to the ground in a show of raw emotion. He also flashed an obscene gesture toward the Rockies.
Rockies left-hander Christian Friedrich hit Wong in the upper back with two outs in the seventh, drawing the ire of St. Louis manager Mike Matheny. That put an end to the bad blood.
After the game, LeMahieu said he thought Martinez lost his temper because in the fourth inning, LeMahieu drilled a base hit up the middle, nearly hitting Martinez.
“It wasn’t an accident,” LeMahieu said of Martinez’ fastball to his hip. “I hit the ball back at him in the at-bat before, and I guess he thought I tried to hit it back at him or something. I’m not sure, but he was staring me all the way down (the first-base line) so I don’t know.”
Rockies left fielder Corey Dickerson said that Martinez is “an emotional player,” and said that contributed to the incident.
“It’s inexperience,” Dickerson said. “(Martinez) is a young guy with a lot of emotion. I think it was a really bad decision on his part and I don’t think his teammates liked it either. I think it caused one of his teammates to get hit. It’s never good to do that, not good for baseball.
“At the end of the inning, when he slammed his glove, really showing up the team, it really looks bad.”
As for Martinez getting angry about LeMahieu’s hit through the box, Dickerson said: “You can’t expect for us not to go up there and swing the bat. If it goes our way, it goes our way. Just like If I strike out three times I’m not going to take it out on him.”
Dickerson said he faced Martinez a lot in Double-A.
“He’s a very good pitcher, every emotional,” Dickerson said.
Tags: Carlos Martinez, Christian Friedrich, Corey Dickerson, DJ Lemahieu
