Puig goes after Strop after getting hit by a pitch, a breakdown

Jun 29, 2019 1.6M views 2:10
MLB Cincinnati Reds 2019

What Happened

In the bottom of the eighth at Great American Ball Park on June 30, 2019, the Cubs were nursing a lead and clearly wanted nothing to do with Yasiel Puig. With two outs and a runner on second, Pedro Strop fell behind 2-0 and kept feeding Puig junk out of the zone. Puig made a show of it, putting his bat on his shoulder and gesturing that he knew he was being pitched around. Strop's answer was to plunk him, and Puig charged toward the mound while both benches emptied.

Why This Matters

Pitching around a dangerous hitter with first base open is standard baseball, but Puig turned it into theater, and that's what set Strop off. The hit-by-pitch read less like an accident and more like a message. Puig was traded to Cincinnati in the offseason as part of the Yasiel Puig era nobody expected to last, and brawls like this were part of the package, fire and all. He'd been in a famous melee with the Pirates in 2018 too. No suspensions stuck to the principals in any way that changed the standings, but the optics mattered. The Reds were chasing in the NL Central and Puig kept giving them headlines, good and bad. He was dealt to Cleveland a month later in the Trevor Bauer trade, so this near-fight came right at the end of his short Cincinnati run.

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Key Moments

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Who / What Is Involved

Players: Yasiel Puig, Pedro Strop. Teams: Reds, Cubs.

Yasiel PuigPedro Strop

Full Transcript

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all right bottom eighth of this game

between the Cubs and the Reds Puig is

coming up runner on second this one's

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two outs runner on second first base