LOS ANGELES — The night after sitting out the series finale in Colorado because his manager said he’d been “ball-peened” enough by the Rockies in recent days, Cubs star Kris Bryant said he felt fine.
He even had a homer against Clayton Kershaw during a loss to the Dodgers to make his point.
But Bryant still wasn’t fine with how many times the Rockies have hit him with pitches lately — twice Tuesday among five times in the teams’ few meetings the past two years.
“If you’re going to go inside, and you’re going to call pitches up and in, do it with guys that know how to throw there,” said Bryant, who on Tuesday was hit twice by Peter Lambert and last year was hit in the head by a second-year pitcher, German Marquez.
“I mean, the ones that I’m getting hit on, they have no clue where it’s going,” he said. “They’re towards my head. That’s not safe. Last year I got hit almost in the face. It’s dangerous.
“I don’t know if it’s just a coincidence or what,” Bryant added. “Their catcher told me it’s not on purpose. I don’t think it’s on purpose. But, I mean, being hit five times in two or three years is quite a bit.”
With Bryant out of the lineup Wednesday, Cubs pitcher Cole Hamels appeared to get a pound of flesh back when he hit Rockies star Nolan Arenado on the forearm with a pitch.
Arenado left the game an inning later — after which, Hamels, the Cubs’ Anthony Rizzo and the Rockies’ Tony Wolters all took turns getting drilled.
“It was carried on a little further than it should have been,” Bryant said. “I don’t know how Nolan’s doing. I hope he’s OK. It hit him in a tough spot. I’m doing fine.
“But we start throwing at each other and stuff like that, I don’t like seeing it. I don’t think there’s a need for that in baseball.”
Bryant understands when the players “police themselves,” he said.
“You get hit and then the other guy gets hit and we’re done. That’s how it should go,” he said. “But it doesn’t need to get carried on the way it did [Wednesday].”
