The fireworks started early at the Brewers-Braves game in Atlanta on Wednesday, with a Carlos Gomez homer off Paul Maholm in the top of the first leading to a benches-clearing incident.
Gomez and Maholm had a history, with Gomez batting .424 with two HBPs in 21 career plate appearances against the lefty. After his long homer tonight, he paused and watched, then started jawing with Maholm as he finally decided to start his trot. The conversation continued with Freddie Freeman as he rounded first, and as he turned third, he found himself a roadblock in the form of Brian McCann about 15 feet in front of home plate.
That went as well as one might expect. Gomez and McCann traded barbs and were quickly joined by a couple of Brewers and Reed Johnson off the Braves’ bench. Gomez got very angry, but he seemed more interested in finding teammates to hold him back than actually taking a swing at anyone. In the end, no blows were exchanged. Freeman was the Brave ejected, to his great surprise. The Gomez ejection went unannounced, but he didn’t take his position in the bottom of the first.
Oddly enough, Gomez never did come around to touch home plate. Since McCann obstructed him, it seems he didn’t have to.
For McCann and the Braves, it’s the second incident in a couple of weeks in which they didn’t much like someone’s actions after homering off them. The Marlins’ Jose Fernandez previously got into it with McCann and Chris Johnson.
Whether McCann started this one or not, he should have been the Brave ejected for getting in Gomez’s way. It was hard to see what Freeman did beyond some verbal jousting.
