Dodgers, Diamondbacks brawl, make up, brawl again

Yasiel Puig #66 of the Los Angeles Dodgers is restrained by teammates during a benches clearing brawl after Zack Greinke was hit by a pitch in the seventh inning against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Dodger Stadium on June 11, 2013 in Los Angeles, California. Puig had been hit earlier in the game.

This time last year, Yasiel Puig was still living in Cuba. Shortly after defecting to America, the new Dodgers owners, eager to show they were willing to spend to win, gave him a 7-year $42m contract. The move was criticized by most as desperation spending on the only player available mid-season. Within a year, however, the 22-year-old has already hit the Majors, and is making his mark on the game, hitting 2 home runs in just his 2nd game, before hitting a grand slam 2 days later.

On Tuesday night, the game left its mark on him, too, as Puig took a 92mph fastball from Ian Kennedy to the nose. The blow drew blood, but Puig, apparently tougher than most, decided to stay in the game. In the next inning, Dodgers pitcher Zach Greinke hit the first batter he saw, Diamondbacks catcher Miguel Montero, in what was presumably an act of retaliation.

This is nothing unusual when a player has been hit, especially a dangerous hit like this one. Nonetheless, Greinke’s throw led to the benches clearing, and Dodgers and Diamondbacks all over the field. There was pushing and shouting, and all the usual things players and coaches get up to when angry, but nothing more.

Matters became much interesting, however, just one inning later, when Greinke was due up to bat. Kennedy, apparently still annoyed at Greinke for throwing at his catcher, did something very unexpected, throwing intentionally at Greinke. The pitch caught him on the shoulder, but the intent behind it was clear, and it could easily have been a second player taking a ball to the face.

Kennedy was immediately ejected from the game, but wasn’t off the field before the benches were cleared for a second time in a matter of minutes. Batters are often hit accidentally, and retaliatory “plunkings” to the back or ribs, while frowned upon, are fairly common. Throwing intentionally at a player’s head is entirely another matter, and Dodgers players and coaches were clearly, and probably justifiably, outraged.

The second brawl was a very different tone to the first, with lots more angry pushing and shoving, and probably a few punches thrown (although it’s very hard to make out much of what happens in a mob so large and angry). Montero, already on the receiving end of Greinke’s pitch, certainly claims to have been punched by several players, including some currently injured, going as far as saying “I guess their arms were feeling pretty good because they were throwing good punches.”

Puig, among others, was ejected from the game after the brawl and, while he finished without a hit (with the bat at least) for only the second time in his young career, I’m sure many Dodger fans will feel like he’s already earned every cent of that big money deal.

Fortunately, it appears as though no one was seriously hurt, by pitch or by brawl, though several players, and especially Kennedy, will miss a few games at least by suspension.