Benches clear, Puig gets hit and then chaos breaks out, a breakdown
What Happened
In a tense matchup during the Venezuelan championship series, tensions boil over between the two teams. It begins in the second inning when Luis Torrens, batting for the home team, hits a home run and celebrates with an emphatic bat flip and gestures. In his next at-bat in the fourth inning, Torrens is hit by a pitch, igniting a heated exchange. Yasiel Puig, playing for the visiting team, quickly rushes to the front of the scuffle, trying to diffuse the situation and keep his teammates calm. The umpires eject the opposing pitcher, angering the manager who argues vehemently. The game settles down until the eighth inning when Mikel Franco, also of the home team, hits a go-ahead home run and proceeds to aggressively celebrate and taunt the opposing dugout as he rounds the bases. This reignites the tensions, with the catcher from the visiting team confronting Franco about the over-the-top celebration. The benches clear again, and a full-scale brawl breaks out. Puig again tries to be the peacemaker, standing between the teams and having one-on-one conversations, but the situation escalates when a fan throws a drink at Puig. Puig briefly leaves the scuffle but then returns, attempting to calm down the opposing pitcher. However, the pitcher shoves and punches Puig, unleashing his fury. A chaotic melee ensues, with Puig trading blows and a batting helmet bouncing around the brawl like a beach ball. Eventually, the umpires and coaches are able to separate the teams, but the damage is done. Despite the lack of ejections, the home team ultimately loses the game, with the next batter hitting a go-ahead home run shortly after the brawl concludes. It's a tense, escalating situation that spirals out of control, with Puig trying in vain to be the voice of reason amidst the chaos.
Full Transcript
Click timestamps to jump to that momentWe had a big brawl in the championship series in Venezuela.
This one is brought to you by DraftKings.
Appreciate that.
That's Luis Torrens hitting a home run in the second inning.
In the second inning, celebrates it, bat flips, pimps it, salute, cross,
thanks God, hugs himself.
He comes up in the fourth, and they plunk him right away, right in the ribs.
Pitcher says, so what?
And he says, well, I didn't like it.
Was it because I hit the home run?
And now look who's coming to the front lines.
It's Puig.
Puig comes right out there.
He's like, hey, we don't want no trouble.
Look how big I am, and I'm not going to do anything.
Let's just talk, and, you know, he's celebrating, and let's all be cool.
So Puig's out on the front lines, and he's talking it through,
sticking up for his teammates.
He's been playing crazy well.
He's been playing crazy well.
The umpires toss the pitcher out.
Opposing managers fired up about that.
He's like, what are you talking about?
You're tossed out.
You're going to toss me out.
I'll toss you out.
Toss my pitcher out.
See you later, crowd.
Gets him going on his way out.
Much love.
Anyway, cut to the eighth inning.
So that's when it first started.
Cut to the eighth inning, and it's a tie game, 8-8,
and we have a big home run by Mikel Franco, I believe.
Dead center, and look what he's going to do.
He's going to, oh, my goodness, hold on to the bat,
turns to the opposing dugout and says, yeah, what of it?
You like that?
What are you going to do about that, huh?
He celebrates the whole way around, screaming at everybody.
Everybody can see.
Gets the second, screams at the fielders, the outfielders.
What are you going to do?
Oh, it's our time.
Oh, yeah, our time.
Steps on third, screams into the dugout.
What are you going to do?
And then goes to his wrist again.
Check out my wrist.
Check out my wrist.
Check out my wrist.
My lucky batting gloves.
Yep, that's all it was.
Catcher doesn't like any of that.
Catcher's standing there, and they're really yelling.
He's like, all right, guys, enough.
Get out of here.
And they're like, hey, chill, chill.
And he's like, you guys chill.
You're, like, celebrating a whole bunch, and it's annoying me.
And then everyone's going to start fighting and going to the front lines
and pushing each other besides Puig.
He's staying back, and he's talking to the starting pitcher
and the umpires a little, and he's going to just really cool.
Just him and the starting pitcher.
Not the starting pitcher, I apologize, the eighth inning pitcher.
They're just chatting.
Like, hey, come on.
Why?
We're all having fun.
So they're just chatting while all the nonsense is going on.
Puig staying in the back, having a one-on-one.
And then he sees that the fight's getting kind of real, and they're talking.
And look at the, is it the catcher on the blue team?
Someone pops out, number one right here, pops out, and he's fired up.
He's going to start throwing punches.
So Puig gets himself to the front of the lines again.
I'm one of the bigger dudes here, and I don't want to fight anyone.
So I'm just going to go to the front.
I'm going to push you guys back.
Doing my part.
Not trying to cause trouble.
Look at that.
And then he gets a drink thrown at him by the crowd.
The dude in the crowd.
The dude in the crowd with the, you can see the cup in his left hand, blue shirt, blue hat, lefty cup throw, lot of water right at Puig.
And then the crowd gets excited, and then we got a couple more waters coming, and Puig's in there, and he's like, ah, this stinks.
I'm getting out of here.
I'm hitting well.
I'm playing good.
It's a championship.
I'm not looking for trouble.
I want to play in the Caribbean series.
So he leaves, and then he's going to come right back in because he finds a dude he's going to want to talk to, the pitcher again or someone.
I'm not sure.
I don't know if it's a coach.
He's like, come on.
This is enough.
Stop it.
Stop.
So Puig's doing a good job here, you know?
Just trying to have one-on-one conversations and trying to calm everything down.
And then this dude on the other team comes up and pushes him and then punches him in the face.
And now Puig is unleashed, and he's going nuts, and it's going to take a lot of guys to stop him.
I mean, he's here, and it is just dirt.
I mean, he's got his right, his left going.
There's dirt flying up.
You can see, like, the separation at one point, and they're throwing real punches in there.
It's kind of nuts.
There's Puig.
You can see number 31 pop up.
I think he's going to throw a right here.
But he got hit first.
He didn't want to get hit.
There's also a batting helmet that comes at one point.
Let me see if I can find this.
See number two?
He runs in, and he's got his batting helmet on, and this helmet is just going to hot potato like it's crowd surfing around the brawl.
It's going to pop off his head soon right there.
And now it's on no one's head.
And that blue helmet is just bouncing around.
It's going to get a big bounce off the net right here and come back up.
It's like three feet in the air there.
Someone must have popped it up like a beach ball in the crowd.
And then it keeps going, and then eventually it falls.
That was wild.
That helmet was bouncing around.
So, yeah, everyone's kind of looking around.
I don't know what's going on in there.
Nothing good.
They're trying to contain Puig.
He's fired up looking for that dude.
Why'd you punch me?
I wasn't even part of this.
This guy thinks he's doing something just because he's standing on a box.
Putting his hand out.
No one's listening to you, guy.
No one knows you're there.
You're not part of anything.
Puig ditches.
I think he's going to.
Yeah, he is.
Number 31.
He comes out.
He's not into it anymore.
I mean, he never was, to be honest.
And they're going nuts in there.
So, the only time it got like a real brawl was when the one dude who didn't want to fight
got really provoked to fight.
And then he was like, okay, we're fighting.
No one got kicked out, I believe.
Or at least Puig didn't get kicked out.
They just kind of separated everything.
The umpires were like, what do you got?
And they're like, I don't know.
There's a lot of dust.
Dirt just kicked up.
I didn't see much.
Nothing.
And then they get nothing.
And then the next batter hits a double.
And that's a bummer because it was right off that dude's glove.
And he gets into second base.
And then the next batter, what does he do?
Big old lefty.
Infield in.
Home run.
So, you lost.
I don't know if they're losing the series.
But this whole exchange, they lost.
Thanks, DraftKings, for sponsoring this breakdown.
And thank you to you guys for watching.
Appreciate you, as always.
Goodbye.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.