{"id":713552,"date":"2026-04-08T14:52:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T14:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/713552\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T14:52:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T14:52:14","slug":"jorge-soler-reynaldo-lopez-spark-brawl-between-angels-braves-over-high-pitch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/713552\/","title":{"rendered":"Jorge Soler, Reynaldo L\u00f3pez Spark Brawl Between Angels, Braves Over High Pitch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Atlanta Braves<\/a> pitcher Reynaldo Lopez<\/a> and Los Angeles Angels<\/a> designated hitter Jorge Soler<\/a> were ejected after getting into a brawl on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

Soler homered off L\u00f3pez in the first inning and was then hit by a 96 mph fastball from the right-hander his next time up. In the fifth, Soler charged the mound after L\u00f3pez threw a high-and-inside wild pitch that tipped off catcher Jonah Heim<\/a>‘s mitt.<\/p>\n

At first, L\u00f3pez held up his hands as the two glared at each other before both started throwing punches.<\/p>\n

“I asked him if everything was OK and the answer he gave me, I didn\u2019t like it,” Soler said through a translator, according to MLB.com<\/a>. “That\u2019s why I went out there.”<\/p>\n

Benches have cleared in Anaheim \ud83d\ude2e \"Benches<\/a> <\/p>\n

The benches and bullpens emptied as players from both teams tried to separate the two. Atlanta manager Walt Weiss was among those who tackled Soler, the 2021 World Series<\/a> MVP with the Braves.<\/p>\n

“I love Soler. We were teammates here,” Weiss said. “But that\u2019s a big man, and so I just felt I’ve got to get him off his feet because he\u2019s going to 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

L\u00f3pez was still holding the baseball when he landed a punch on Soler’s batting helmet.<\/p>\n

The two were teammates in Atlanta during the second half of the 2024 season.<\/p>\n

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

Atlanta led 4-2 when the fight occurred and went on to a 7-2<\/a> victory.<\/p>\n

Soler’s two-run shot in the first made him 14 for 23 with five homers and three doubles against L\u00f3pez.<\/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

Weiss understood why Soler was mad.<\/p>\n

“I know it didn\u2019t look good because of Soler\u2019s numbers against L\u00f3pey [Lopez], and he hit a homer, he hit him. It didn\u2019t look good,” Weiss said. “L\u00f3pey\u2019s not throwing at him. I don\u2019t allow our pitchers to throw at people just because they can\u2019t get them out. Our job is to get them 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

“There 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,” Weiss added.<\/p>\n

L\u00f3pez pitched 4 2\/3 innings, allowing three hits with seven strikeouts and two walks.<\/p>\n

“Obviously, the guy\u2019s got good numbers off L\u00f3pez and hits a homer in his first at-bat. Gets drilled up high in the wrist in his second at-bat and then the 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,” Angels manager Kurt Suzuki said.<\/p>\n

“I don\u2019t blame Jorge one bit. He went out there and words were exchanged and Jorge went out,” Suzuki added. “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 Angels won 6-2 on Monday in the opener of the three-game series. Tuesday night’s game was more eventful, to say the least.<\/p>\n

“It gets your juices flowing a little bit, on both teams I\u2019m sure,” Weiss said. “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 for the way we handled everything tonight.”<\/p>\n

Reporting by The Associated Press.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Atlanta Braves pitcher Reynaldo Lopez and Los Angeles Angels designated hitter Jorge Soler were ejected after getting into…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":713553,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[1280,293785,1285,1884,1266,296806,228573,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-713552","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-atlanta-braves","9":"tag-jorge-soler","10":"tag-los-angeles-angels","11":"tag-major-league-baseball","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-mlb-atlanta-braves-vs-los-angeles-angels-04-07-2026","14":"tag-reynaldo-lopez","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116369657061579588","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=713552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/713553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=713552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=713552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=713552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}