López-Soler tussle leads to ejections in Braves’ win over Angels

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Tuesday’s game at Angel Stadium had a little bit of everything. Multiple Austin Riley hits. A Jonah Heim RBI. A Mike Trout bobblehead for fans.

Oh, and punches thrown.

Braves starting pitcher Reynaldo López and Angels designated hitter Jorge Soler got into a fight in the fifth inning Tuesday at Angels Stadium. The Braves won the game 7-2. It was undetermined who won between López and Soler.

In the end, it went down as a simple misunderstanding between friends.

“Yeah, unfortunately, it’s just a shame, the situation and how things unfolded,” López said via team interpreter Franco Garcia. “On my part, there was never any intent to hit (Soler) at any point. So, again, it’s just a shame.”

With the Braves up 4-2 in the fifth inning, and with two outs and a runner on first, López threw a fastball that whizzed high-and-tight past Soler, who had hit a two-run homer in the first inning and had been hit on the hand by a López pitch in the third inning.

The wild pitch caromed off the backstop straight back to Braves catcher Heim who caught it, turned and fired to second to try to get Nolan Schanuel racing from first to second. Schanuel made it safely — then time seemed to stand still, as Soler stood in the right-handed batter’s box and López lingered off to the side of the mound.

López and Soler began shouting at each other. Then Soler took off toward the mound and the two began throwing punches at each other.

“I think as a pitcher, I kind of just always have the confidence to look back and just to stare down the plate, see what’s happening,” López said. “And then I noticed that (Soler) just kept staring at me. And so it eventually came to the point where it escalated. I think it’s just an unfortunate situation and without any intent from me, on my part, to hit him at all at any point.”

Soler told reporters after the game, according to MLB.com, that he didn’t like having been hit by a pitch earlier in the game, nor did he like the pitch that came up and that led to the fracas. He said the ensuing scuffle was because of “the heat of the moment.”

Said Heim, “Yeah, I mean, obviously it slipped out of (López’s) hand. I mean, we’re not trying to do anything malicious there, just a bad pitch. Had a really close play at second, thought we got the out there, just kind of waiting (to see) if we were going to challenge (the call) or not.

“Next thing I knew, I heard some chirping and then (Soler) kind of just took off after him. So I just tried to get out there and de-escalate as best I could. Punches were thrown and it got a little crazy.”

Players from both teams emptied out of their respective dugouts and players from both bullpens sprinted in from left field. As the throng of players drifted toward the first-base line, Braves manager Walt Weiss brought Soler to the ground with a tackle any football coach would approve of.

“I love Soler. We were teammates (in Atlanta). That’s a big man,” Weiss said, while featuring some bloody scrapes on his left knuckles. “I just felt like I had to get him off his feet because he’s gonna hurt somebody. That was my instinct, just to get in there and get Georgie off his feet. He was on the warpath.”

López and Soler were both ejected after things calmed down. Braves reliever Tyler Kinley came in to pitch and struck out Soler’s replacement Jeimer Candelario.

There were no further incidents.