Benches and bullpens cleared after Chicago White Sox starting pitcher Davis Martin airmailed not one but two four-seam fastballs in the bottom of the third inning of a 9-8 loss to the Cincinnati Reds on Thursday at Rate Field.
Martin hit Reds rookie first baseman Sal Stewart with the second errant throw. The 92-mph fastball knocked off his helmet.
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Stewart pointed the knob of his bat toward Martin. He then threw up two fingers and could be seen yelling, signaling that Martin had hurled high and very inside twice in a row.
Martin tried to diffuse the situation as he slowly walked toward Stewart, seemingly pleading that he didn’t mean to plunk him, but he was quickly met by a member of the officiating crew, who stopped Martin in his tracks.
The benches emptied, and so did the bullpens, but they did so gradually. No scuffle resulted, and the mid-game infield congregation soon dissipated.
Just when it looked like the teams were going to resume play, with Stewart having taken his well-earned free pass to first, Stewart was tossed by Alan Porter, the home-plate umpire and crew chief, even though a warning hadn’t previously been issued.
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Stewart, whose last start this past Sunday against the Cleveland Guardians was cut way short because of a rain delay, wasn’t happy about the ejection and neither was White Sox manager Will Venable, who wound up turning to his expected Friday starter, Erick Fedde.
Fedde, another right-hander, allowed four runs in three innings after Martin was responsible for three runs in the two innings he logged.
Altogether, the White Sox (62-58) allowed nine runs to the Reds (58-62). Cincinnati built a 9-5 lead — in large part thanks to homers from Stewart, Eugenio Suárez and Tyler Stephenson — and hung on the rest of the way.
Thursday’s game in Chicago had been moved up due to rain in the forecast. Martin authored another abbreviated start, but the weather wasn’t to blame this time.
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Reds manager Terry Francona called the hit-by-pitch Martin issued “extremely blatant.”
“You can’t throw two balls like that head high,” he said, via Chatterbox Sports. “You’ll kill somebody. I thought that was terrible.”
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