Brawl Mires Dodgers and Diamondbacks game
The heat is on out west. The Los Angeles Dodgers and the Arizona Diamondbacks met on Tuesday night in the second game of a three game set three games series.
However, the game was mired by two bench clearing incidents with one brawl and multiple ejections. The brawl was genuine with punches thrown and real anger showing on the faces of both players and coaches.
It all started in the sixth inning when the Dodgers’ new sensation Yasiel Puig was beaned in the nose by Ian Kennedy of the Diamondbacks.
The next inning Dodgers starter Zack Greinke promptly hit Miguel Montero of Arizona in the back. At that time, the benches cleared but nothing took place between the players or coaches.
However, during the bottom of the inning, Kennedy hit his counterpart on the mound Greinke with a pitch, and chaos took over.
The first group of Dodgers off the bench was Luis Cruz, Ronald Belisario and Juan Uribe and they met the Diamondbacks just outside the dugout of Arizona, as both bullpens emptied and waves of red and blue uniforms began to mix.
Matt Williams, the third base coach for Arizona grabbed Don Mattingly the manager of the Dodgers around the top of his uniform to make sure he was under control. At the same time, several Los Angeles players started arguing in the face of Turner Ward a coach with the Diamondbacks.
Video appeared to shoe Belisario throwing several punches as Ward was pushed into a railing by J.P. Howell, a Dodgers relief pitcher.
Anger and frustration could be seen all around. Mark McGwire the hitting coach of the Dodgers got right up into the face of Kirk Gibson the Arizona manager and then was pulled off by Williams.
Puig then became involved in the melee and was pulled away after appearing to punch Eric Hinske an Arizona infielder.
Order was restored and ejections handed out. Gibson and pitcher Kennedy were tossed as the benches had been warned earlier about throwing at players.
In addition, McGwire, Belisario and Puig were thrown out for the Dodgers, while Arizona also lost Ward to an ejection.
The Dodgers said after the game that retaliation for beanings is part of the game, but when a pitcher throws at another pitcher and close to the head, something has to be done.
Greinke has had a metal plate inserted in his shoulder from the results of a brawl earlier this season and that helped to ignite the Dodgers since he is one of their key pitchers in the rotation.
The Umpires will have their hands full in Wednesday’s game, while the discipline committee in baseball will surely have more to say about this game and the players involved.
Oh, by the way, the Dodgers ended up winning the game 5-3 and the current series is tied 1-1, with the rubber match on Wednesday, which should not only be heated by the temperature, but by the temperaments of the players.
