Nationals, Pirates Had the Silliest Benches-Clearing Scrum of MLB Season

Andy Nesbitt | Apr 17, 2025

The Pirates and Nationals ran out of their dugouts and then... didn't do too much. / MLB

The Washington Nationals and Pittsburgh Pirates had a tense moment in Wednesday night's game after Washington's Jorge Lopez threw a pitch that almost hit Andrew McCutchen. That led to both teams coming out on the field to, well, mostly stand around and do nothing.

This all happened in the seventh inning and the anger from the Pirates side didn't seem to make too much sense at all. Lopez's high-and-tight pitch came on a 2-1 count with two outs and two runners on. There's no reason to believe he was trying to hit McCutchen in that situation. The announcers mentioned that McCutchen had hit a home run off Lopez last year but you have to think there's no way Lopez was even thinking about that.

The benches cleared while the umps were talking it over and the only heated person seemed to be Pirates outfielder Tommy Pham, who seems like he's always ready for a moment like this.

Seriously, this might be the lamest benches-clearing scrum of all time:

Pirates and Nationals clear the benches after Jorge Lopez throws a pitch near Andrew McCutchen's head. Lopez was ejected. Oneil Cruz had to hold back Tommy Pham pic.twitter.com/ZOZxmkxTLi

— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) April 17, 2025

Lopez was thrown out of the game for that, which seems like a huge overreaction from the umps. The pitcher said this afterward, via MLB.com:

“I apologize for everything. I didn’t make any pitch [on purpose] right there. … I tried to do my adjustment. I’ve been trying to find my way with my delivery, I tried to find my way through the whole season. And it's really miserable that happened. I regret what just happened.”

The Pirates ended up winning the game, 6-1.

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