Julio Teheran sparked a benches-clearing incident in the fifth inning of the Washington Nationals-Atlanta Braves game on Tuesday when he (intentionally) hit Bryce Harper in the thigh with a pitch.
Harper took Teheran deep to center for a solo home run in the third to give the Nats a 1-0 lead. After the homer, Harper held onto his bat, took about four slow steps up the line as he watched his deep blast, and then gave a bat toss. He didn’t egregiously pimp or celebrate his home run, but he definitely admired his shot. He also took 23.66 seconds to make his way around the bases, which marks his longest career home run trot, per TaterTrotTracker. That didn’t sit well with Teheran.
In the fifth, the Nats had a man on second and one out when Teheran dosed Harper in the leg. Harper was fuming after getting hit, and he immediately pointed and yelled at the Braves pitcher to tell him that was a b.s. move. The benches cleared and the relievers left the bullpen and made their way to the infield, though nothing happened aside from words being exchanged.
Teheran said after the game that he missed inside with the pitch, while Harper thought it was intentional. Harper also acknowledged that getting hit is a consequence for admiring a monster home run.
“He’s got to do what he’s got to do. And it’s part of the game, like I said,” Harper said, via The Washington Post. “If I walk-off on somebody and he wants to drill me, I’ll let him drill me and I’ll stand on first base and say some choice words and get over it.”
Braves catcher Brian McCann said he noticed Harper taking a little extra time watching the home run.
Former Braves legend Chipper Jones chimed in via Twitter and essentially blamed Harper.
Don't walk off homers and u won't get hit!
— Chipper Jones (@RealCJ10) August 7, 2013
The bench-clearing incident between the teams also led to a mini Twitter fight between the two sides, started by the Braves.
@Braves Which part, giving up the home run, or drilling the 20-year-old on the first pitch his next time up?
— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) August 7, 2013
The Braves won the game 2-1 for the 12th-straight victory. I honestly did not think Harper did enough to warrant getting hit, but that is up to the individual discretion of each pitcher. If they feel they were shown up, they hit the guy. It’s worth noting that Justin Upton admired his home run on Monday night just as much as Harper did, and the Nats didn’t hit him.
