The Astros and Dodgers had the first socially-distanced bench-clearing incident
Had the umpires been sticklers, there would have been quite a few ejections during Tuesday night’s Dodgers-Astros game.
According to the COVID-19 regulations for the 2020 season, players who come within 6 feet of an umpire or an opponent while not in the course of play are subject to ejection. But social distancing wasn’t strictly adhered to when the benches cleared in Houston.
In January, the details of the Astros’ cheating scandal became public and fans thought opposing teams would mete out punishment for the actions of the Houston players during the 2017 season. None of the Astros were disciplined for cheating.
That year ended with Houston winning the World Series against the Dodgers, and some wondered if there would be fireworks when those teams faced off Tuesday.
There were.
Los Angeles pitcher Joe Kelly, who wasn’t with the Dodgers in 2017, walked Alex Bregman on a 3-0 pitch in the sixth inning and the last pitch nearly hit Bregman’s helmet. Later, an off-speed pitch also almost hit Carlos Correa in the head.
Kelly struck out Correa to end the inning and that’s when tempers flared.
Expect this meme of Kelly to be used for the foreseeable future:
Why did Kelly make those faces? Well, it may have been because he was cursed out that inning by Astros manager Dusty Baker. I won’t add that video, but you can find it here.
After the game, Baker said: “When you throw a 3-0 fastball over a guy’s head, now you’re flirting with ending his career. And a couple of other ... balls were close. What really enraged everyone was when he told Carlos, he struck him out and he told him, ‘Nice swing, b----.’ What are you supposed to do then?
“What upset me was the umpires warned us. Why don’t you warn him? He’s the one throwing the ball. He’s the one that started this mess in the first place?”
This story was originally published July 29, 2020 at 8:51 AM.
