Rockies Starter Kyle Freeland, Two Giants Stars Ejected in Brawl After Home Run

The Colorado Rockies lost their starting pitcher just eight pitches into Tuesday’s game with the San Francisco Giants, thanks to a brawl.

Colorado Rockies interim bench coach Clint Hurdle (55) escorts starting pitcher Kyle Freeland (21) off the field following a bench clearing brawl against the San Francisco Giants in the first inning at Coors Field. / Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images

The Colorado Rockies had Kyle Freeland on the mound for Tuesday’s game with the San Francisco Giants at Coors Field. That lasted eight pitches.

Freeland gave up a home run to Giants slugger Rafael Devers in the first inning of the contest, a towering shot to right field that gave San Francisco an early lead. But it’s what happened after the home run that got everyone’s attention, caused the benches and bullpens to clear and led to three players — including Freeland — to be ejected from the game.

It started with an exchange of words between Freeland and Devers, as the Giants slugger was in mid-trot to first base. It appears Devers’ bat flip set it off.

How Rockies-Giants Brawl Happened

Rafael Devers' massive homer leads to a benches-clearing brawl at Coors Field 😲 pic.twitter.com/3difBlh3tR

— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) September 3, 2025

Cameras across Coors Field caught the brawl as it happened. A wide shot of Freeland pitching to Devers showed the left-handed hitting Devers pound a Freeland offering into left field. After the camera followed the ball into right field, it cut to Devers, who was yelling at Freeland. That quickly descended into chaos, as Freeland was pushed from behind by Giants third baseman Matt Chapman. After that, Giants shortstop Willy Adames moved in to take a swing at Freeland as the rest of the benches and bullpen converted on the mound.

WOAH benches clear in Rockies - Giants game!
Kyle Freeland and Rafael Devers chirping at each other.. then Chapman gives Freeland a shove... then Adames tries to start another scuffle..
This all goes down EIGHT pitches into the ballgame! pic.twitter.com/50NwgrFudC

— Romi Bean (@Romi_Bean) September 3, 2025

For their actions, Freeland, Chapman and Adames were all ejected by home plate umpire Phil Cuzzi. Incredibly, that wasn’t the most absurd thing that happened. As the brawl was being broken up, Devers returned to first base and stood there for several minutes as the umpire crew tried to sort things out.

Once the ejections were handed down, Rockies interim manager Warren Schaeffer went to his bullpen and brought in Antonio Senzatela, who was removed from the rotation last week, to take over on the mound. He was given as much time as he needed to warm up. While he was warming up, Devers circled the rest of his bases to finish off his home run.

Rafael Devers hit a homer off Kyle Freeland and rounded the bases while another pitcher warmed up. Bizarre. pic.twitter.com/6AVSSfMUYH

— Alex Pavlovic (@PavlovicNBCS) September 3, 2025

The Giants had to make changes too. Casey Schmitt came into pinch-hit for Adames, who was on deck as Devers was batting. Then, Dominic Smith had to pinch-hit for Chapman, who was hitting behind Adames in the original lineup.

When the inning ended, the Giants sent Devers to third base to replace Chapman, Schmitt to second base, Smith to first base to replace Devers and Christian Koss was sent into the game to play shortstop for Adames.

It was a chaotic start for a pair of teams that are basically playing out the string for the rest of the season.  

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