Colorado Rockies morning after: A beanball war in LoDo knocks Nolan Arenado out of the game

The Colorado Rockies lost Wednesday’s game big in multiple ways.

The Colorado Rockies finished their series with the Chicago Cubs with a loss in Wednesday’s day game by the score of 10-1, after a poor start from Antonio Senzatela, in which he only went four innings, allowing eight hits and eight runs (six earned).

The Rockies offense was also virtually non-existent as they only scored one run, and that came in the 9th inning.

However, the biggest item of note in the game was a hit-by-pitch to Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado in the 3rd inning. He was later removed from the game in the 5th inning for what was called a “left forearm contusion” and x-rays were negative for any kind of fracture.

After the game, Arenado spoke to the media, including Rox Pile’s Kevin Henry, about his hit-by-pitch.

He said that immediately after he was hit, he “knew it was on the meat, where the muscle is so I was feeling okay but it [started] throbbing and got super tight and, sometimes, when things get super tight quick, you’re afraid that it might be a break…” He later said that the tightening happened during the fourth inning and that’s why he was removed in the 5th.

He also said that his plan is to play in Thursday’s series opener with the San Diego Padres but it depends on how he feels when he wakes up in the morning.

Arenado was also asked if he sensed that it was more than just a pitch that got away from the pitcher (Cole Hamels).

"“I don’t really have to explain what’s going on here. You guys all saw the games in Chicago [and] you saw them here [too]. It’s just baseball. I thought [the ball] was a little high. If you were here for the series, you saw what was going on…”"

Rockies manager Bud Black also spoke to the media, including Rox Pile’s Kevin Henry, and he said that “it didn’t look right to me.”

The Rockies hit the Cubs third baseman, Kris Bryant, twice in Tuesday’s game so Arenado said that he “kind of had a feeling that it was going to happen [to me].”

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After his hit by pitch, there were three more hit-by-pitches. The Rockies had two of them as Cubs pitcher Cole Hamels and first baseman Anthony Rizzo and for the Rockies, Tony Wolters was hit by a pitch in the ninth inning. This all stems back to the Rockies and Cubs series in Chicago last week when German Marquez hit Bryant and Cubs catcher Willson Contreras in the second game of the series.

After the Hamels and Rizzo HBP’s in the 7th and 8th innings, the home plate umpire Roberto Ortiz (who is a Triple-A fill-in umpire filling in for this particular crew’s backup crew chief Marvin Hudson for this series) issued warnings to both teams. He did not, however, eject Cubs reliever Brad Brach, who hit Wolters in the 9th.

Cubs manager, Joe Maddon, spoke to the media, including Rox Pile’s Jake Shapiro, as well and said this about the Cubs getting hit today and Bryant twice on Tuesday.

"“Right now, we lead the league in getting hit by pitches and our guys go to first base.”"

The Cubs were actually in a three-way tie with the Dodgers and Nationals for the second-most hit batsmen but with the two HBP Wednesday, they are tied with the Mets as the number one team to be hit by pitches. The rest of Maddon’s comment is for you to decide what he means.

Final Thoughts

Fortunately for both teams, this is the final time that they will face each other in the regular season so the teams will only potentially have an opportunity to face each other in the postseason this year.

In the words of Nolan Arenado, if it happens, “if we played them again, it’d be a pretty spicy series.”

Stay tuned for updates on Arenado’s injury and if he returns to the starting lineup today, both on the site and on Twitter, as Rox Pile’s Jake Shapiro will be at Coors Field for our coverage.

The Colorado Rockies lost Wednesday’s game big in multiple ways.

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Final Thoughts

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