Rockies bench Carrigg for ‘couple days’ after gesture toward Atlanta fans

Recent Rockies frustration boiled over for outfielder Cole Carrigg on Saturday evening, and because of that, he’s out of the team’s lineup for the series and road-trip finale in Atlanta on Sunday.

Carrigg was caught on camera making an obscene gesture towards the stands late in Saturday’s 2-1 loss to the Braves, the team’s 10th defeat in its last 12 games heading into Sunday.

The rookie will sit out for “a couple days,” Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer said.

“Cole made a mistake – he knows that is an embarrassment to the organization and that we don’t stand for that,” Schaeffer said via Thomas Harding of MLB.com.

“Listen, everybody makes mistakes. It’s just one that he has to learn from. It’s just that we will not put up with that here.

“So he is going to sit a couple days, because he’s a guy that wants to play every day. That’s the repercussions of this.”

The decision did not keep Schaeffer from using Carrigg as a pinch hitter in the seventh-inning Sunday to get a right-handed bat up against Atlanta left-handed reliever Dylan Dodd. Carrigg struck out but remained in the game in center field.

Carrigg apologized for the middle-finger gesture, calling it “inexcusable on my part.” It came immediately after he attempted to nab a line drive from Atlanta center fielder Michael Harris II in left center field, but the ball skipped off his glove.

The tying and winning runs scored on the play, with the game-deciding run scoring without a throw after Jordan Beck didn’t fire to Ezequiel Tovar, the cutoff man, and instead threw to Connor Norby at second base, whose tag on a sliding Harris was late. A ninth-inning rally fell short, ensuring the play was the one that decided it against the Rockies.

“With that being said,” Carrigg told MLB.com after his apology, “I’m somebody who’s going to play at 110% every game and give my all to this team and to the game to try to win ballgames. That was a play that I felt could or could not have won the game, so I’m very passionate about that.

“Braves fans are pretty passionate themselves. Kudos to them. But that [the gesture] can’t happen.”

With Carrigg out of the mix for Sunday’s matinee at Truist Park, the Rockies moved Jake McCarthy back to center field, aligning Mickey Moniak in left field and Troy Johnston in right field.

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