Atlanta Braves pitcher Reynaldo López and Los Angeles Angels designated hitter Jorge Soler were ejected from a Major League Baseball game Tuesday night following an on-field brawl.
The fight broke out in the fifth inning when López threw a high-and-inside wild pitch that narrowly missed Soler’s head, leading Soler to charge the mound. Earlier in the game, Soler had hit a home run off López, and López later hit Soler with a 96 mph fastball.
“I asked him if everything was OK and the answer he gave me, I didn’t like it,” Soler said through a translator, according to MLB.com. “That’s why I went out there.”
Both players exchanged punches and the benches and bullpens emptied as players from both teams tried to separate the two. Braves manager Walt Weiss tackled Soler, his former player, to de-escalate the situation.
“I love Soler. We were teammates here,” Weiss said. “But that’s a big man, and so I just felt I’ve gotta get him off his feet because he’s gonna hurt somebody. And so that was my instinct, just to get in there and get Jorge off his feet, yeah, because he was on a warpath.”
