A Winter League game in Venezuela turned into chaos after a three-homer night by Carlos Castro lit a fuse. Early tensions started in the first inning when Castro crushed a 3-0 pitch for a home run and celebrated with a bat flip and some flair. That didn’t sit well with former MLB veteran Asdrúbal Cabrera or his teammates, who took the showboating personally. After a few more innings of escalating tension—and another home run by Castro—the game exploded in the eighth when Castro hit his third homer and dared the other team with a sarcastic “can I bat flip now?” As he rounded the bases, Cabrera sprinted over and clotheslined him in a sudden and violent move. Castro hit the ground hard, and things spiraled from there.
Multiple players and coaches jumped in. One coach punched Castro while he was still on his knees. Amid the chaos, someone offscreen threw a baseball into the pile, beaning a player in the head and flooring him. Teammates squared up but didn’t always throw punches, some choosing to posture more than fight. At one point, even Cabrera’s own pitcher tripped him during the scuffle. The umps struggled to restore order as ejections followed, while some players kept trying to rejoin the fray until they were dragged back to their dugouts. Castro, after getting assaulted twice and being visibly shaken, still had to finish his home run trot. The crowd made a human tunnel for him, but the damage was done. Multiple players could be facing serious consequences, especially whoever threw the ball at someone’s head. What started as some winter league fun turned into a mess of fights, cheap shots, and dangerous behavior.