Pirates 'Light Fire' With Bench Clearing Moment
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PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Pirates and Washington Nationals got into it during their most recent game at PNC Park. which may serve the moment that will the Pirates needed for the rest of the season.
Nationals right-handed pitcher Jorge Lopez would hit Pirates designated hitter Bryan Reynolds with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning.
Lopez then threw a sinker that went towards Pirates right fielder Andrew McCutchen's head. This forced McCutchen to duck out of the way, and as the umpire crew decided on a warning or an ejection, both players got into an argument, with both benches clearing.
9.2.24 ➡️ Reynolds & McCutchen homer off of Jorge López
— SportsNet Pittsburgh (@SNPittsburgh) April 17, 2025
Tonight ➡️ López nearly hits them both with a pitch, benches clear, and he is ejected 😳 pic.twitter.com/XeycEpcssF
Despite the benches clearing, no fight ensued and the umpires would eject Lopez from the game.
Pirates center fielder Oneil Cruz held back McCutchen and then had to hold back left fielder Tommy Pham, both of who didn't care for that pitch from Lopez.
The Nationals brought in right-handed pitcher Eduardo Salazar, who would walk McCutchen and then give up a grand slam to Cruz, the first of his career, which put the Pirates up 6-0.
Oneil Cruz's first career grand slam is a ROCKET 🚀 pic.twitter.com/JARt8yFcre
— MLB (@MLB) April 17, 2025
"I don't know if he got fired up, I mean, I think our whole club, as you can see, got fired up," Pirates manager Derek Shelton said after the grand slam from Cruz. "They took a little bit of offense to what happened and because of that it sparked a big inning."
This was almost the second straight game that featured a dangerous hit by pitch, as Pirates right-handed pitcher Mitch Keller hit Nationals third baseman Paul DeJong in the face, which took DeJong out of the game.
McCutchen said after the game that he didn't think Lopez tried to hit him, but that the situation that occurred caused tempers to flare.
“I don’t think it matters if it was or if it wasn’t," McCutchen said. "It’s just the fact of the nature of the situation. I never try to say, I can’t speak for the other person, but, yeah so just the nature of the situation. Take it as it is. Even if wasn’t on purpose, which I don’t really think it was, I think it was the height of the moment got to him maybe. It got away from him, similar to Mitch [Keller], but praise God for quick reflexes.”
Shelton didn't like that this pitch came right after Lopez hit Reynolds and praised the umpires for their handle on the incident. He also said that if this was revenge for Keller hitting DeJong, that was never intentional.
“Exactly that. It was way too close to his head. Bryan [Reynolds] had got hit two pitches before and then we go above Cutch’s head? Not a fan of that. I think the umpires did really good job of, really good job of controlling it, knowing the situation.
“I mean if this stems from something that happened yesterday, Mitch [Keller] did not try to hit Paul DeJong in the face in a 1-0 game. It was totally accidental. So if this was retribution for that, then it’s just lack of awareness.”
McCutchen and Lopez had prior history, with McCutchen hitting a solo shot off Lopez when he was pitching for the Chicago Cubs.
Reynolds would also hit a three-run home run off Lopez in that same inning, igniting a comeback in the eighth inning for a 5-3 victory at Wrigley Field on Sept. 2, 2024.
Shelton remembered that game, but mentioned that it would be ridiculous if Lopez took anything from that game in hitting Reynolds and almost hitting McCutchen.
“Every game’s different and every situation’s different," Shelton said. "So if we’re stemming that from a game last year in August, like we got to be better than that."
McCutchen was proud of the way his team responded in that monent, not only for showing up for him, but also by the way they got the win, which was mattered most in the end.
“That’s what it’s all about you know? You don’t want things like this to happen ever in a game where you got to, you know, clear the benches and all this stuff happens and then we just stand around looking at each other, just asking each other what we’re doing tomorrow, all that stuff," McCutchen said.
"You don’t want it to get to that point, but it’s good for us to show up as a team and keep the game going. Not let the moment get too high or heighten off the moment and running off emotion and letting your emotion take over and then you try and do something that you’re not supposed to be doing.
"Cruz showed up and lit a fire under him and he was able to hit a grand slam. Sometimes it’s needed. We ended up being on the good end of it."
Shelton saw it as another example of the bond this Pirates team has, despite their record, which may cause some fans to see a team not close because of it.
“I don’t think there’s any thought in my mind that this group’s not really cohesive," Shelton said. "They’ve done a really good job with that. Didn’t surprise me at all.”
McCutchen, now in his 12th season with the Pirates, his second stint and 38 years old, is the leader of the clubhouse and is finding ways to bring his team closer any way he can.
He even bought the entire team Phiten necklaces, which they used in their 10-3 win over the Nationals on April 14 and catcher Henry Davis showed off during his solo home run in the fifth inning of this game.
McCutchen sees this moment as one that will hopefully get the team on a the right track to start winning more ball games, as they sit 7-12 overall in mid-April.
“It can, especially when you’re looking for that, as a club," McCutchen said. "You don’t always want to feel like you’re forcing the team and the team bond and the team here and doing this. Sometimes you have to force it, especially early in the season, but when the season’s gone the way it’s gone for us thus far, sometimes things like that can bring a team that’s just trying to figure out their identity and figure out the why’s and the, “Why are we up and down? Why do we score 10 [runs] one day and can’t seem to score one the next?”
"You have something like today and it can bring teams closer together, but it’s a good overall win for us. Hopefully that’s the fire that we need.”
Shelton spoke similarly a McCutchen did and is open to any way that will get his team to win more games.
“Yeah I think anything that you can hang on to that galvanizes you, yeah," Shelton said. "So if it galvanizes us, that’s fine.”
Dominic writes for Pittsburgh Pirates On SI, Pittsburgh Panthers Pn SI and also, Pittsburgh Steelers On SI. A Pittsburgh native, Dominic grew up watching Pittsburgh Sports and wrote for The Pitt News as an undergraduate at the University of Pittsburgh, covering Pitt Athletics. He would write for Pittsburgh Sports Now after college and has years of experience covering sports across Pittsburgh.