The first brawl of the Major League Baseball season took place on Sunday, and Yasiel Puig was very much involved.
Things started after Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Chris Archer threw behind Cincinnati’s Derek Dietrich, who admired a home run he hit earlier in the game. The benches cleared, but it was generally a lot of milling around.
That was the case until Reds outfielder Yasiel Puig broke away from those restraining him and tried to seek out Archer.
Temps are rising in Pittsburgh after a behind the back pitch on Derek Dietrich who homered earlier in the game. pic.twitter.com/y3dIDCV7Gj
— FOX Sports Ohio (@FOXSportsOH) April 7, 2019
Five players were ejected from the game — three Reds and two Pirates.
David Bell and Yasiel Puig were ejected after the benches-clearing scuffle. #Reds
— Bobby Nightengale (@nightengalejr) April 7, 2019
Pirates relievers Keone Kela and Felipe Vazquez ejected too. https://t.co/AKwY6ouZNU
— Bobby Nightengale (@nightengalejr) April 7, 2019
Amir Garrett was also ejected in the benches-clearing incident. Five people (Bell, Puig, Kela and Vazquez) total. #Reds
— Bobby Nightengale (@nightengalejr) April 7, 2019
Puig has been involved in his fair share of skirmishes before. It will be interesting to see if any further league discipline comes his way for escalating the incident. It will also be intriguing to see if this is the end of it in Sunday’s game, as the incident took place fairly early on in the contest.
