Yasiel Puig is restrained during the benches-clearing brawl in the seventh inning of Tuesday’s game between the Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks. (Getty Images)
The Dodgers and Diamondbacks will decide if any further action is needed tonight, 24 hours after Tuesday’s massive brawl.
So will Major League Baseball.
A spokesperson for the league said that Joe Garagiola Jr., MLB’s senior vice president of standards and on-field operations, will review video of the incident to determine if fines or suspensions are warranted. Even though six participants — Kirk Gibson, Ian Kennedy, Turner Ward, Mark McGwire, Yasiel Puig and Ronald Belisario — were ejected, others could face supplemental discipline.
The crew chief, first-base umpire Brian Gorman, told pool reporter Ken Rosenthal that Puig and McGwire were ejected for being instigators, while Belisario was “out of control.”
Gibson and Kennedy were automatically ejected and precedent holds that both could be suspended. Then-Dodgers manager Joe Torre and pitcher Clayton Kershaw were suspended in July 2010 for throwing at Aaron Rowand of the San Francisco Giants. Torre was suspended one game, Kershaw five.
Some of the 15 Dodgers players on the disabled list went on the field, including Chris Capuano and Josh Beckett. That hasn’t historically resulted in suspensions, though Garagiola may choose to fine the two pitchers.
Coincidentally, Garagiola was the Diamondbacks’ first general manager, from 1997-2005.
Some more bullet points that didn’t make my game story last night:
• Puig cramped his left hamstring running out a ground ball early in the game and was allowed to stay in.
• After he was hit in the nose in the sixth inning, Puig was administered concussion tests at home plate by assistant athletic trainer Greg Harrel and head athletic trainer Sue Falsone. He passed and was allowed to remain in the game.
• Still, Puig will probably get a day off soon. That is, if Garagiola slows down the video enough to see this frame.
• Lots of game details were easily lost. Like the fact that Greinke tossed his second straight quality start (7 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB and 5 K). He had three subpar outings against the Brewers, Angels and Rockies prior to this run.
• Andre Ethier was instrumental to the win. He went 2 for 3, scored twice, and drove in a pair of runs with a two-run homer, raising his average to .236.
• The one mistake he made was to Jason Kubel, a 90-mph fastball over the middle of the plate. “We decided it was the wrong pitch and bad execution at the same time,” Greinke said.
• Greinke praised Tim Federowicz for his pitch-blocking and his offense. Federowicz said that his bases-clearing double in the eighth inning — a line drive that looked like it might leave the yard off the bat. “At the big-league level,” he said, “that’s my biggest hit.”
• In the eighth inning, Mark Ellis got hit in the upper left leg by Diamondbacks pitcher Joe Paterson, but no one perceived that to be intentional. At least Ellis didn’t.
• Ever since I saw him live last year, one of my favorite local rappers has been Jonwayne. Here’s a brand-new track, “Notes to Myself”:
