Apr 11, 2018 4 min read

Nolan Arenado nearly connected for a couple of huge hits.

Furious with a fastball that buzzed behind his back, the Colorado slugger immediately charged the mound. And he came out wildly swinging at pitcher Luis Perdomo.

Arenado’s rush set off a heated fracas in the third inning that led to five ejections during a testy game in which the Rockies beat the San Diego Padres 6-4 on Wednesday.

“They thought they had to do something,” Arenado said. “I thought I had to do something, too. That’s kind of why I went out there.”

Perdomo flung his glove at the bolting Arenado and missed. Arenado then threw a couple of big punches at the backpedaling Perdomo, but didn’t land anything squarely.

The All-Star third baseman’s reaction certainly woke up the slumbering Colorado bats, with the Rockies scoring five times in the inning inning to take a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.

Arizona 7, San Francisco 3: Paul Goldschmidt left his slump in San Francisco.

Goldschmidt and John Ryan Murphy hit home runs, and the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Giants 7-3 to take two of three at AT&T Park.

Milwaukee 3, St. Louis 2: Matt Albers got his first save for Milwaukee, retiring Kolten Wong and Dexter Fowler to strand a pair of runners, and the Brewers beat the St. Louis Cardinals 3-2.

Milwaukee had a two-run lead when Tommy Pham led off the bottom of the ninth with a drive against Josh Hader that hit a railing above the fence in left-center. The play originally was ruled a double but the call was overturned on a video review.

Albers relieved and allowed singles to Marcell Ozuna and Jose Martinez, then retired Wong on a foulout and struck out Fowler, who was pinch hitting, for his third big league save. He got his first two for Washington last year.

Atlanta 5, Washington 3: Peter Bourjos drove in two runs with a bases-loaded single in the 12th inning and Atlanta’s bullpen finally made a lead stand up, helping the Braves beat the Washington Nationals 5-3 after losing Brandon McCarthy to an injured left shoulder.

N.Y. Mets 4, Miami 1: Marlins lefty Jarlin Garcia was pulled after pitching six hitless innings in his first major league start, and the New York Mets took advantage of a strong season debut by Zack Wheeler to beat Miami 4-1 Wednesday night for their seventh straight victory.

American League

Cleveland 5, Detroit 1: Detroit Tigers pitcher Jordan Zimmermann bruised the right side of his jaw when hit in the face by a line drive off the bat of Cleveland’s Jason Kipnis and left after two batters in the Indians’ 5-1 win.

Making his third start of the season, Zimmermann retired Francisco Lindor on a fly ball starting the game. The 31-year-old right-hander had little time to react to Kipnis’ line on a 2-2 pitch. Zimmermann was face down on the pitcher’s mound for several moments after being struck and was attended to by head athletic trainer Doug Teter.

Seattle 4, Kansas City 2: Kyle Seager hit a go-ahead homer with two outs in the eighth inning, and the Seattle Mariners held on to beat the Kansas City Royals, 4-2.

Chicago White Sox 2, Tampa Bay 1: With one big, timely swing, Matt Davidson gave the White Sox the lift they needed to pick up their first home win of the season.

Davidson hit a two-run homer off Austin Pruitt in the eighth inning and Chicago rallied to beat the Tampa Bay Rays, 2-1.

Minnesota 9, Houston 8: Max Kepler hit his second home run of the game, connecting for a solo drive with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning as the Minnesota Twins bounced back from a late collapse to beat the Houston Astros 9-8.

After the Twins blew an 8-1 lead, Kepler homered with two strikes off Brad Peacock (1-1).