Manager, coach and pitcher draw suspensions
Clayton Kershaw, Manager Joe Torre and bench coach Bob Schaefer drew suspensions for the parts they played in the brushback war between the Dodgers and San Francisco Giants on Tuesday night.
Kershaw was suspended for five games and fined an undisclosed amount, as the officiating crew and commissioner’s office believed he deliberately threw at Aaron Rowand in the seventh inning. Kershaw is appealing the punishment and his suspension will be put on hold until the appeals process is complete.
Because Rowand was hit after both benches were warned when Matt Kemp was hit by a fifth-inning pitch by Tim Lincecum, Torre was suspended for a game.
Schaefer also earned a one-game ban for arguing that Giants pitcher Danny Bautista should have been reprimanded for throwing a pitch near Russell Martin’s head in the sixth inning.
Kershaw declined to comment about the situation, but said he heard the ovation he received from the home crowd as he departed the field.
“It was great,” he said.
Umpire crew chief Tim McClelland said he didn’t think Lincecum purposely threw at Kemp and that the teams were warned only because of how Kemp veered toward the mound after he was hit. McClelland also said he didn’t think Bautista had any intention of hitting Martin.
Torre served his suspension Wednesday and Schaefer will serve his Thursday.
Pitching update
Short on bullpen arms, the Dodgers purchased the contract of left-hander Jack Taschner from triple-A Albuquerque. Taschner signed a minor league contract with the Dodgers after he was released by the Pittsburgh Pirates in June.
Taschner started his career with the Giants but said he would partake in the plunk-a-thon that erupted between the Dodgers and his former club if he was called to do so.
“If that’s what’s needed, that’s what’s needed,” he said.
James McDonald, who started Monday, has been moved to the bullpen. Torre wouldn’t say who would replace McDonald in the rotation Saturday, but didn’t rule out John Ely and Claudio Vargas as possibilities.
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