After Kershaw’s suspension, time to let pitchers retaliate!

Monday, Los Angeles Dodgers Pitcher Clayton Kershaw dropped his appeal of Major League Baseball’s  five-game suspension for “intentionally” hitting San Francisco Giants batter Aaron Rowland on July 20 .

During the fifth inning of the game, Giants pitcher Tim Lincecum throw a pitch extremely tight inside to Dodgers batter Matt Kemp, which was followed up by another inside pitch which hit Kemp. In response, the home-plate umpire warned both benches. When Kershaw hit Rowand during the top of the seventh inning, he was immediately ejected.

I understand the theory of warning both benches following an at-bat like Lincecum vs. Kemp to keep emotions under control and prevent the outbreak of hostilities between teams. But why shouldn’t the Dodgers have an opportunity to retaliate?

As a consequence of Major League Baseball’s practice of warning both benches in these situations, teams that are victims of “beanballs” do not get the chance to protect a star player by retaliating against an opponent’s star player without fear of punishment. Baseball has made it so that one team gets to hit an opposing team’s player and then make it through the rest of the game without fear of retaliation. Not only will your pitcher and manager receive an ejection, but they also risk suspensions.

But besides an obvious issue of basic injustice — which will always have the attention of this Jack Bauer, it has a significant impact on the course of the game.

One of the smaller details of the game of baseball is the battle between pitcher and batter with respect to the inside pitch. The ability to throw a hard pitch inside can be a tremendous advantage to a pitcher. This also potentially opens up the outside portion of the plate if the batter adjusts his stance to be further back from the plate. The same is true with respect to the height of a pitch: a pitch high near the batter’s head, followed by a pitch near a batter’s knees, often has negative consequences to the batter due to the sudden change in eye-level of pitches.

As a result of Major League Baseball’s practice, because Kemp was pitched inside on consecutive pitches by Lincecum, and being struck by the second pitch, the Dodgers were denied the ability to pitch inside on the Giants the remainder of the game. One could make the case Kershaw’s fateful pitch simply got away from him, but either way, the Dodgers never would be afforded the opportunity due to instant ejections in such a situation, despite the fact that the Dodge’s had not done anything during the game as of yet to warrant a warning.

I am in favor of Kershaw’s actions, even though it will now officially cause him to miss a start. Most baseball fans would agree that the Dodgers needed to respond to Lincecum’s actions, even if they were by some chance unintentional. Against the division rival Giants in the midst of a tight race for the postseason, the Dodgers would look un-unified and weak by not responding. Dodgers manager Joe Torre was also ejected from the July 20 game, and issued a one game suspension. As a Dodgers fan, I choose not to recap how this game ended, but it was decided due to the loss of Torre because of Major League Baseball’s customary practice in question.

The 162-game schedule often comes down to the final week of the regular season. The unjust events of July 20 and League rulings could likely come back to affect how the tough NL West is won. Given the umpire’s decision to warn both benches during the game, it seems clear to me that the umpire felt like Lincecum may have intentionally thrown at Kemp, so I am puzzled why Lincecum got off scott-free. Once again Bud Selig’s league does something half-assed.  (Maybe it’s time for Selig to run for political office.)

Although I disagree with the pitchers warranting punishment in this case, at least Major League Baseball is finally given a real punishment to a pitcher when it chooses to punish a pitcher, and I have been a critic of baseball not giving “real” punishments to pitchers.

Tags: Bud Selig, Clayton Kershaw, Matt Kemp, pitching, suspensions, Tim Lincecum