Kent Bewley's News Story Collection

On Tues, Apr 7, the Los Angeles Angels took on the Atlanta Braves in the middle game of a three-game series. The Halos had won the night before by a final score of 6-2 as they were fueled by eight solid innings pitched by José Soriano and home runs hit by Zach Neto(another leadoff shot) and Jo Adell. For this game, it was Mike Trout 400 Home Run Bobblehead giveaway night and there were super-long lines of fans who arrived early to get their latest Trout figurine. Only 25,000 of them available, so there was some serious fear of missing out in this instance. The game had a pitching matchup between Reynaldo López and Yusei Kikuchi and both lineups were set. Mike Trout was back after suffering a hand injury on a hit-by-pitch on Easter Sunday that knocked him out of the game and had him sidelined for the series opener against Atlanta. Thankfully, he was playing on the night that his bobblehead dedicated to his latest career milestone was the giveaway item.

The game started with a blast as Kikuchi had a clean first inning and then Trout reached base after a throwing error by Austin Riley at third. With two outs and Trout at second, Jorge Soler came up to bat. The former two-time member of the Braves(via trade deadline acquisitions in 2021 and 2024) and World Series MVP swung at a fastball thrown by López and the ball went flying high and deep down the left field line. It went over the wall and it was a two-run homer. The Halos had taken a 2-0 lead as Soler had his second home run of the season. Atlanta responded with an RBI double by Eli White that scored Matt Olson in the second inning. In spite of Jo Adell hitting a single to lead-off the bottom of the second and stealing second base, the Angels couldn’t do anything in that inning.

In the third inning, Kikuchi had a clean inning while the offense attempted a two-out rally where Nolan Schanuel hit a ball that was ruled to be a “ground-rule double” after the ball hopped over the yellow line below the right-field pavilion wall’s “bullseye” for home runs. Soler came up next and on a 2-2 count, López hit him on the hands. Another hit-by-pitch thrown by an opposing pitcher against an Angels batter. Yoán Moncada had a chance to get a big hit, but he unfortunately grounded out to end the inning. That missed opportunity would come back to sting immediately, as Atlanta rallied against Kikuchi with a leadoff walk to Matt Olson leading to an RBI single by Riley that scored Olson from second base and then a double by Mauricio Dubón led to two more runs on a sacrifice fly by White and an RBI single by Jonah Heim that gave the Braves a 4-2 lead. In the bottom of the fourth, the Halos did nothing and then the fifth inning came.

After a 1-2-3 inning pitched by Kikuchi, the bottom of the fifth had López strike out both Neto and Trout. Schanuel reached on a walk and then Soler came to the plate. López threw a high pitch that breezed past Soler’s face and the ball ricocheted off the backstop as Schanuel was sprinting to second base. Heim was able to make a throw from behind the plate that nearly got Schanuel out at second base, but he slid in safely. If the out had been recorded, none of the following chaos would have transpired.

Soler stared out at López, who was coming back onto the mound. Some words were said between them and then eventually Soler ran to fight against López, who stood his ground and delivered some defensive punches as Soler clawed towards him. Both benches cleared out as Soler got hit while wearing his helmet by the baseball in López’s hand. López was pushed away as Soler got tackled by Braves manager Walt Weiss and a couple of other Atlanta players held him back. López was escorted away by Mike Trout and Braves first base coach Antoan Richardson. The brawl was eventually broken up, Soler went off to the Angels’ clubhouse and the umpires discussed who should be ejected. Crew chief Vic Carapazza announced that Soler and López were both ejected from the game and that both teams were issued warnings for the rest of the game. There was a long roughly 15-minute delay as the new pitcher for Atlanta in Tyler Kinley had to warm up for an extended period of time and the pinch hitter for Soler was Jeimer Candelario. Besides the brawl on the field, there was at least one fan sitting in the third base luxury box suite who was attempting to come onto the field and had to be held back by security staffers and police officers, who arrested him. The man wearing a Vladimir Guerrero jersey was reportedly a family member of an Angels player, although it is not clear who the player on the active roster in question is.

After all that chaos subsided, Candelario came up to bat and he struck out against Kinley, thus finishing the at-bat inherited from Soler. In the sixth inning, Shaun Anderson came in to pitch and he pitched a good inning in only allowing a leadoff single to Riley. In the bottom of the sixth, the Halos attempted another rally when Adell hit a single to center field and Weiss brought in lefty reliever Dylan Lee with one out. Josh Lowe came up and hit into a fielder’s choice and then Travis d’Arnaud stepped to the plate with two outs. On the second pitch he saw, d’Arnaud hit a ball that was fielded by Braves shortstop Jorge Mateo, who struggled with gripping the ball. Mateo threw the ball towards Olson at first base, but the ball went wide of Olson. It was a throwing error and d’Arnaud would be safe. However, Lowe saw that the ball was loose from second base and attempted to get to third base. But the ball ricocheted cleanly off the first base dugout and Olson picked up the ball and threw it across the infield to Riley, who caught the ball and tagged a sliding Lowe out at third base. It was a horrendous baserunning error that cost the Angels dearly in blowing another golden opportunity to score. Oswald Peraza was on-deck and could have had a chance to come through. But this was a night of missed chances for the home team.

In the seventh inning, Anderson had a solid inning and after the seventh inning stretch, Atlanta brought in Robert Suarez to pitch. Adam Frazier pinch-hit for Peraza and he worked a leadoff walk, but Neto struck out looking for his fourth strikeout of the night at the plate. Trout had a chance to tie the score but flew out to left field, and then Schanuel struck out on a foul tip to end the inning. In the top of the eighth, the Braves got an immediate insurance run on a leadoff home run by Ozzie Albies to right field. Anderson gave up a couple of additional hits, but he didn’t surrender another run in the eighth. In the bottom half of the inning, the Halos put forth their final scoring threat against Aaron Bummer, who started the inning by hitting Candelario on the foot and walking Moncada. With two runners on base, this was a big chance for Jo Adell to potentially tie the score. Instead, after a long at-bat, he flew out to deep center field but both Candelario and Moncada advanced forward one base each. With two runners in scoring position, the Halos were going to have to face their former closer in Raisel Iglesias, who was being brought out for a potential five-out save opportunity. This was definitely a gamble from the Braves, but it paid off as Iglesias used his high heat to strike out pinch-hitter Logan O’Hoppe and his former catcher in d’Arnaud to end the inning.

In the top of the ninth, Atlanta added on two more runs against Mitch Farris, who was recently called up by the Angels. In the bottom of the ninth, one last scoring threat from the Halos occurred as Neto and Trout both reached base on back-to-back singles against Iglesias, but he got Schanuel to ground into a double play to end the game. The Braves had won this intense and emotional game 7-2 as the biggest moment of the night game was the Soler-López tilt. The very next day, it was announced by MLB that both Soler and López were being suspended for seven games for their roles in the intense no-holds-barred fight. López was able to successfully appeal his suspension and will only be suspended for five games, which is basically nothing for a starting pitcher like him. López doesn’t even get to miss a single start of action, while Soler is going to miss a week unless his appeal is slightly reduced. There was one additional fight that occurred on the first base terrace level at Angel Stadium during the seventh inning stretch and the perpetrator of the brawl was ejected as the fans who directly witnessed the brawl sung out “Hey, hey, hey, goodbye!” Overall, it was a wild night at the Big A with this fight being the first major brawl that the Halos were involved in since one on Sun, Jun 26, 2022 against the Seattle Mariners that led to suspensions of different players and coaches on both sides. For the 2026 Angels, the frustration felt by the players and fans with getting a lot of inside pitches by the Mariners eventually boiled over to the Braves series and Atlanta was unwise to stir a hornet’s nest on Tuesday night. But they were the winning team in Anaheim in the end.