Any time you gather a group of testosterone-laden males and have them compete for anything you run the risk of a fight breaking out. It doesn’t matter if it’s about a game of beer pong, during an interview about an unwanted nickname or because a fan became a little too involved in a game, dudes will punch each other. Not only is it accepted in most sports, it’s expected. Dusty Baker recently went so far as to advocate fighting as a means of conflict resolution.
So when the Dodgers’ Zack Greinke threw a pitch in the 5th inning of Tuesday night’s game that hit Cody Ross of the Diamondbacks, there was almost no question that things were going to get heated. What no one expected was that by the end of the game there would have been five batters hit by pitches, two bench-clearing brawls, and six ejections.
After Ross was hit, rookie phenom Yasiel Puig took a fastball to the nose in the bottom of the 6th courtesy of D’backs pitcher Ian Kennedy.
Puig was shaken up, but eventually made his way to first without incident. Cut to the top of the 7th, when Greinke plugs D’backs catcher Miguel Montero and the benches clear — for the first time.
Former Dodgers legend and current D’backs Manager Kirk Gibson did not take kindly to his catcher getting beaned, and when Greinke came up to bat in the 7th, he was promptly tagged in the shoulder by Kennedy. That’s when all hell broke loose. This was no ordinary fight friends, this was a full-on, old-school melee, with everyone from Ronald Belisario to Dodgers Manager Don Mattingly throwing punches, and Dodgers hitting coach Mark McGwire having to be physically restrained from ripping Gibson’s head off.
It’s unclear who won the fight (Puig, Belisario, McGwire, Gibson, Kennedy and D’backs assistant hitting coach Turner Ward were ejected), but the Dodgers went on to win the game 5-3. It’s worth mentioning that just 8 weeks ago, Greinke was involved in another fight with Carlos Quentin of the Padres that resulted in Greinke being on the DL for a month with a broken collarbone, as well as a Dodger win. Between the electrifying presence of the recently called-up Puig and the sparks generated by these brawls, maybe the under-performing Dodgers will finally catch some fire.
