{"id":118173,"date":"2026-04-08T12:07:59","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T16:07:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=118173"},"modified":"2026-04-08T12:07:59","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T16:07:59","slug":"braves-angels-lopez-soler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/04\/08\/braves-angels-lopez-soler\/","title":{"rendered":"Tempers Flare During Angels &#038; Braves Contest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Tempers flared in California on Tuesday during the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/04\/03\/braves-pitching-lineup-strength-in-face-of-adversity\/\" target=\"_self\"><span class=\"s2\">Atlanta Braves<\/span><\/a>&#8216; 7-2 win over the Los Angeles Angels.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Tempers Flare During Angels &amp; Braves Contest<\/h2>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">In the bottom of the fifth inning with two outs and a runner on first base, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/03\/31\/atlanta-braves-former-all-star-feels-better-than-2023\/\" target=\"_self\"><span class=\"s2\">Braves<\/span><\/a>\u2019 right-hander, Reynaldo Lopez, threw an errant fastball over <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/04\/03\/braves-backstop-drake-baldwin-chasing-down-hank-aaron-franchise-record\/\" target=\"_self\"><span class=\"s2\">catcher<\/span><\/a> Jonah Heim and Angels&#8217; designated hitter Jorge Soler&#8217;s head. Lopez\u2019s actions sparked a back-and-forth between him and Soler, which led to punches being thrown. A brawl ensued.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Jorge Soler and Reynaldo L\u00f3pez are throwing PUNCHES in Anaheim as a brawl breaks out <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Uj4kOk07Ow\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/Uj4kOk07Ow<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Talkin&#39; Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TalkinBaseball_\/status\/2041717591182344566?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 8, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"s3\">Jorge Soler Didn\u2019t Like Reynaldo Lopez&#8217;s Response\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cI asked him if everything was OK and the answer he gave me, I didn\u2019t like it,\u201d Soler said through interpreter Jobel Jim\u00e9nez to <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/news\/jorge-soler-reynaldo-lopez-involved-in-benches-clearing-brawl\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rhett Bollinger and Courtney Hollomon of MLB.com<\/a>. \u201cThat\u2019s why I went out there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The former All-Star 2023 added that he has great numbers against Lopez, which he felt may have contributed to Lopez going after Soler. In his career (23 at-bats), Soler is <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/player\/batvspitch\/_\/id\/33860\/reynaldo-lopez\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span class=\"s2\">hitting<\/span><\/a> .609 with five home runs, 11 RBI, and three strikeouts. Soler homered off Lopez in the first inning to left field. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cObviously, I have good numbers against him,\u201d Soler said. \u201cAfter the home run and getting hit by a pitch after that, and then he missed way too high and close to my head. At this level, you can\u2019t miss like that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"s3\">Reynaldo L\u00f3pez Says No \u201cintent\u201d To Hit Soler <\/span><\/h3>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">After the game, through interpreter Franco Garc\u00eda, Lopez explained that he had no \u201cintent\u201d to hit Soler. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cIt&#8217;s just a shame, the situation and how things unfolded,\u201d L\u00f3pez said through interpreter Franco Garc\u00eda. \u201cOn my part, there was never any intent to hit him at any point. So, again, it&#8217;s just a shame.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Lopez was in line to win the game, but he and Soler got promptly ejected after the first punches got thrown and will likely receive suspensions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credits: <span>William Navarro-Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tempers flared in California on Tuesday during the Atlanta Braves&#8216; 7-2 win over the Los Angeles Angels. Tempers Flare During Angels &amp; Braves Contest In the bottom of the fifth inning with two outs and a runner on first base, Braves\u2019 right-hander, Reynaldo Lopez, threw an errant fastball over catcher Jonah Heim and Angels&#8217; designated [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5794,"featured_media":118204,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1071,21,16],"tags":[780,336],"class_list":["post-118173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb","category-braves","category-angels","tag-jorge-soler","tag-reynaldo-lopez"],"modified_by":"Evan Mazza, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5794"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118173"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":118207,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118173\/revisions\/118207"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}