In what was an otherwise routine and mostly quiet game on Tuesday night between the Atlanta Braves and Los Angeles Angels, a big time brawl broke out between Braves starter Reynaldo Lopez and former World Series hero Jorge Soler.
Let’s set the stage. Earlier in the game, Lopez hit Soler in the hand with a fastball. In the fifth inning, another high fastball sailed over the head of catcher Jonah Heim. Soler took offense to it, and after the two stared each other down, the former World Series hero charged the mound. Punches were thrown, Walt Weiss made a perfectly formed tackle to take Soler down — seriously, watch the video — and both players were ejected.
We will see what the league decides to do, but a suspension for both players seems highly likely.
As for the rest of the game, the Angels took an early 2-0 lead on a Soler homer that was aided earlier in the inning on an errant throw from Austin Riley. The Braves would chip away by way of an Eli White RBI double in the second to cut the lead in half. In the fourth, Austin Riley delivered a much-needed RBI single to tie it, followed by a White sacrifice fly and Jonah Heim bloop single to give Atlanta a 4-2 lead. Ozzie Albies delivered a much-needed insurance run with a solo homer to right in the top of the eighth.
In the bottom half of the eighth, Aaron Bummer allowed two runners to reach scoring position with just one out. Weiss aggressively brought Raisel Iglesias in, who promptly struck out back-to-back hitters to escape the jam without a run scoring.
In the ninth, the Braves added some valuable insurance runs by way of a Drake Baldwin RBI single and Matt Olson 5-3 double play with the bases loaded to score another run.
The series and long west coast road trip will wrap up on Wednesday afternoon with Grant Holmes set to take on lefty Reid Detmers. First pitch is 4:07 p.m. ET.
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