{"id":669947,"date":"2026-04-08T09:11:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T09:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/669947\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T09:11:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T09:11:07","slug":"chaos-erupts-at-mlb-game-as-two-former-teammates-are-ejected-for-fighting-each-other","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/669947\/","title":{"rendered":"Chaos erupts at MLB game as two former teammates are ejected for fighting each other"},"content":{"rendered":"

Atlanta Braves<\/a> pitcher Reynaldo L\u00f3pez and Los Angeles Angels<\/a> designated hitter Jorge Soler were ejected from Tuesday night’s MLB game<\/a> after a dramatic on-field brawl<\/a> erupted between the two players.<\/p>\n

The fiery confrontation saw both benches clear as tensions boiled over following a series of contentious pitches.<\/p>\n

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The incident began in the first inning<\/a> when Soler hit a home run off L\u00f3pez. Their next encounter saw L\u00f3pez hit Soler with a 96 mph fastball.<\/p>\n

The flashpoint arrived in the fifth inning when L\u00f3pez threw a high-and-inside wild pitch that narrowly missed Soler’s head, tipping off catcher Jonah Heim’s mitt. This prompted Soler to charge the mound, confronting his former teammate.<\/p>\n

Initially, L\u00f3pez held up his hands as the two men glared at each other, but the situation quickly escalated into a physical altercation with both players throwing punches.<\/p>\n

Soler later explained his actions, stating: “I asked him if everything was OK and the answer he gave me, I didn\u2019t like it. That\u2019s why I went out there.”<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The benches emptied to try and break up the brawl (AP)<\/p>\n

Benches from both teams immediately emptied as players rushed to separate the combatants. Atlanta manager Walt Weiss was among those who intervened, tackling Soler, who was the 2021 World Series MVP with the Braves.<\/p>\n

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Weiss recounted his decision: “I love Soler. We were teammates here. But that\u2019s a big man, and so I just felt I’ve gotta get him off his feet because he\u2019s 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.”<\/p>\n

During the melee, L\u00f3pez, still holding the baseball, managed to land a punch on Soler’s batting helmet.<\/p>\n

L\u00f3pez, who had been teammates with Soler in Atlanta during the latter half of the 2024 season, expressed regret over the incident.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s just a shame, the situation and how things unfolded,” L\u00f3pez said through a translator. “On my part, there was never any intent to hit him at any point. So, again, it\u2019s just a shame.”<\/p>\n

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Manager Weiss echoed this sentiment, defending his pitcher.<\/p>\n

“I know it didn\u2019t look good because of Soler\u2019s numbers against L\u00f3pey, and he hit a homer, he hit him. It didn\u2019t look good,” Weiss explained.<\/p>\n

“L\u00f3pey\u2019s not throwing at him. I don\u2019t allow our pitchers to throw at people just because they can\u2019t get \u2019em out. Our job is to get \u2019em out. But I understand why Soler got angry. And he\u2019s a really mild-mannered guy. So, I think the switch flipped for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no intent there. I just think that L\u00f3pey\u2019s just overthrowing, because he\u2019s had a hard time getting him out. But he\u2019s certainly not trying to hit him.”<\/p>\n

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Soler, who boasts a strong record against L\u00f3pez, including 14 hits in 23 at-bats with five home runs, articulated his frustration.<\/p>\n

“Obviously, I have good numbers against him,” Soler said. “After the home run and getting hit by a pitch after that, and then he missed way too high and close to my head. At this level, you can\u2019t miss like that.”<\/p>\n

\"Atlanta<\/p>\n

Atlanta coach Walt Weiss defended his player after the brawl (AP)<\/p>\n

Angels manager Kurt Suzuki supported his player’s reaction.<\/p>\n

“Obviously, guy\u2019s got good numbers off L\u00f3pez, and hits a homer his first at-bat. Gets drilled up high in the wrist his second at-bat and then third one takes a good swing and then throws the next one head-high. It wasn\u2019t over his head but it was head-high coming in,” Suzuki stated.<\/p>\n

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“I don\u2019t blame Jorge one bit. He went out there and words were exchanged and Jorge went out. You get thrown at your head, you have a family, your career, you know, it\u2019s dangerous. I know it\u2019s part of the game. I know it happens.”<\/p>\n

The Braves were leading 4-2 when the fight erupted and ultimately secured a 7-2 victory. The previous night saw the Angels win 6-2 in the series opener.<\/p>\n

Reflecting on the dramatic turn of events, Weiss concluded: “It gets your juices flowing a little bit, on both teams I\u2019m sure. So, as long as nobody gets hurt, it\u2019s kind of a good time. But as long as nobody gets hurt. But yeah, I was proud of our guys the way we handled everything tonight.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Atlanta Braves pitcher Reynaldo L\u00f3pez and Los Angeles Angels designated hitter Jorge Soler were ejected from Tuesday night’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":669948,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[46,5,7530,3509,44345,56,4,5171,35610],"class_list":["post-669947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-atlanta-braves","tag-baseball","tag-jonah-heim","tag-jorge-soler","tag-kurt-suzuki","tag-los-angeles-angels","tag-mlb","tag-reynaldo-lopez","tag-walt-weiss"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116368317806881632","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=669947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}