One moment, Bryce Harper was getting ejected from the dugout. The next, teammate Clint Robinson was hitting a game-ending homer.
Seconds after that, Harper was rushing onto the field — to join the rest of the Washington Nationals in celebrating a dramatic 5-4 victory over the Detroit Tigers, yes, but also to scream what he acknowledged were “a couple choice words” at the umpire who tossed him in the ninth inning on Monday night.
Told that TV captured him cursing in the direction of umpire Brian Knight after Robinson’s one-out drive off Mark Lowe, Harper replied: “Absolutely. I was pretty upset... So let him hear what I have to say — and let him hear it again, and, you know, so what?”
Photo: AFP
Asked whether he expects to be fined, Harper said: “If I do, I do. I’ll pay it. Maybe he’ll get fined, too. So we’ll see.”
Harper was ejected after Danny Espinosa struck out. Harper and manager Dusty Baker said several members of the Nationals were complaining about that call.
“I think everybody was up on the steps and preaching about what they thought was going on, and [Knight] picked me and said: ‘See you later,’” Harper said.
“I guess you can’t kick everybody out on the team, because a lot of guys were hollering about it,” Baker said.
As for having the National League Most Valuable Player removed from a tied game in the ninth inning, Baker said: “He’s an emotional young man, like most of us on the field out there. You certainly don’t like him to get tossed, but every once in a while you’ve got to blow off some steam or else you go crazy.”
Baker went out to argue with Knight after the ejection. After the game, Baker said the umpire told him he had considered kicking out Harper earlier in the evening.
Once play resumed, Robinson connected with the second pitch he saw from Lowe (1-2). Oddly enough, Robinson did not realize what was at stake: He lost track of the inning and was sure it was the eighth, not the ninth.
“Rounding first, I thought it was a go-ahead homer,” Robinson said. “Thinking it was the eighth inning probably had a little bit of a calming effect on me, maybe, going to the plate. Thinking it’s just the eighth inning — just another pinch-hit at-bat, no big deal.”
Not until he touched third base and turned for home — where Harper and the others were waiting for him — did Robinson figure out what had happened, that he had ended Washington’s four-game losing streak and extended Detroit’s skid to seven.
“Knowing it was a walk-off homer made it that much sweeter,” he said.
Shawn Kelley (1-0) got the win with one pitch of work, retiring the only batter he faced in the ninth.
“Everything’s not going our way,” said Tigers manager Brad Ausmus, whose team blew a 4-1 lead. “It’ll change.”
Washington ace Stephen Strasburg got a no-decision on an evening when news emerged that he was going to skip his first chance at free agency, instead agreeing to a deal that is to pay him US$175 million from 2017 to 2023.
J.D. Martinez and Nick Castellanos each hit a two-run homer off Strasburg, who was saluted with a standing ovation when he was pulled in the eighth.
This was not the fully dominant Strasburg who was 5-0 with a 2.36 ERA this year. He was merely terrific for stretches — striking out 11, including six of seven batters in one stretch — and otherwise only OK, allowing six hits.
“It’s really big for us to have ‘Stras’ on our side the whole way,” Robinson said.
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