Right fielder Jake Cave didn’t hold back.
Not on the field or in the clubhouse after the Rockies suffered an 11-9, kick-in-the-crotch loss to the Dodgers Tuesday night at Coors Field.
Colorado entered the ninth inning leading 9-4, but Jason Heyward hit a pinch-hit grand slam off closer Tyler Kinley. Then Teoscar Hernandez blasted a three-run homer off Victor Vodnik to win the game for the Dodgers.
However, the Rockies were sure that Hernandez struck out. One pitch before his homer, he attempted to check his swing on Vodnik’s 1-2, 98 mph fastball. The Rockies appealed to first base umpire Lance Barksdale, looking for strike three, but Barksdale ruled Hernandez did not commit to the swing.
Rockies manager Bud Black vehemently argued the call and was ejected.
On the next pitch, Hernandez hit his 18th home to make it 11-9.
“It was close,” Hernandez said of his swing. “You can call it either way and it will be fine. When Jason hit the grand slam … you knew something was going to happen. I just wanted to get a good pitch hit to tie the game. I put a little extra and it went over the fence. I knew as soon as I hit it. It was great, especially because it put the team ahead.”
Black was positive that Hernandez had struck out.
“I saw a swing — a check swing — but I thought he went (around),” said Black, who was ejected for the second time this season and the 12th time in his eight-year career with the Rockies.
Black wasn’t the only one from the Rockies’ side who went ballistic. So did Cave, who had to be restrained from going after Barksdale on the field.
“Everybody has seen (the swing) now, and I had a good view from right field,” Cave said. “In real time, I didn’t think it was close. … Then, after we made the last out, as I was running in (to the dugout), Lance looks me right in the face and said, ‘Cave, it’s not even close.’
“That’s when I really got (ticked off) because, it was like, ‘Are you really that out of tune with the game that you can tell me that it’s not even close?’ Everybody in the world can see that it was at least close. And (Hernandez) did swing.
“That’s one of the best teams in baseball, and we are beating them, and our pitchers are out there grinding. … That game’s won. On a swing and miss, that game’s won, and we beat the Los Angeles Dodgers.”
Black said he “was fine” with Cave’s emotional outburst on the field.
“Every player has to be himself,” Black said. “Jake plays with a lot of passion and there is a high level of caring, even for the short time he’s been a Rockie. He’s a major-league player with a great deal of competitive fire. That’s who he is.
“He was upset, and that’s fine with me. He wasn’t the only guy who was upset, and he showed it. Which is fine by me. This is an emotional game … and we get into it. And tonight, Jake Cave, amongst other guys, got into it. And I’m fine with that.”
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