Colorado Rockies: Day after brawl, Nolan Arenado discusses next steps

WASHINGTON, D.C. — One day after a brawl that stole the headlines on a sunny Wednesday afternoon at Coors Field, Colorado Rockies All-Star third baseman Nolan Arenado knows a suspension is likely coming, so he’s focusing on what he can do at the plate on Thursday night against the Washington Nationals.

Arenado charged the mound in the third inning of Colorado’s 6-4 win over the San Diego Padres on Wednesday after Padres starting pitcher Luis Perdomo threw a fastball behind Arenado, culminating a series of pitches with intentions that had been building throughout the series.

Both Arenado and Colorado manager Bud Black said the Major League Baseball office has not yet given an indication of what (if any) suspensions will be handed down. However, Arenado said again on Thursday he does expect something to come his way from the MLB office.

Related Story: Watch the Rockies-Padres brawl unfold here

“I mean, I would guess, right?” Arenado told Rox Pile and other media members inside the Rockies clubhouse. “The times when you have seen fights, there have always been suspensions after them. I figure something probably will be happening, but when it comes, we will see.”

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Arenado didn’t want to get into the specifics of the brawl but said he was glad it was in the past.

“A pretty bad situation. Not much to say,” Arenado said. “It got a little sticky and a little weird there. I’m happy we won. That’s the most important thing. We went out of there with a win. It’s over with. I don’t know what will happen, but I’m more worried about the Nationals now.“I was protecting myself. That’s how I see it.”

The focus on the Nationals begins on Thursday night, and Arenado doesn’t know how many of the four games in the nation’s capital or the following three-game series in Pittsburgh he will be available for. Whenever a potential suspension does come down, Arenado said he will hate missing the games and not being able to contribute to the Rockies lineup.

“If I had that mindset going into that at-bat, maybe I wouldn’t have ran out there knowing I was going to miss games but that’s just not how baseball works,” Arenado said. “Obviously I don’t want to miss any time. When I find out how long it’s going to be, we’re going to have to figure out what we’re going to do.”

Arenado enters Thursday night’s game in Washington with a .311/.396/.489 slash line. Included in those numbers are three doubles, a triple and a homer. Arenado is one of three batters (DJ LeMahieu and Chris Iannetta join him) at the top of the Colorado lineup on Thursday night hitting over .300. After that, four of the next five batters are hitting .213 or lower.

Can Colorado’s momentum from Wednesday’s brawl carry over to the road trip? Arenado thinks it will take more than just that to kickstart the Colorado offense.

Next: Looking at the series of events that caused the benches to clear on Wednesday

“The quality at-bats need to be better for everyone. Me, everyone,” Arenado said. “We need to have better approaches and I think we will. We have too many good hitters for it not to happen.”