Things got tense in the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League this week — and Yasiel Puig was caught in the middle of the fray.
During Game 2 of the winter league finals Wednesday night, Tiburones de La Guaira shortstop Maikel Garcia blasted a tie-breaking two-run homer in the eighth inning that just cleared the wall in center to take the lead over Cardenales de Lara.
And not only did the infielder celebrate his long ball, he jawed and pointed at the Cardenales dugout as he circled the bases.
That’s when things started to get really heated.
Garcia slow-walked the last 60 or so feet to home plate before celebrating with his team.
Cardenales catcher Carlos Narvaez seemed to take exception to the whole show and appeared to have words with the pile of Tiburones players near the plate.
That’s when players from both teams met, standing in both batters’ boxes, and a long period of pushing and shoving ensued.
After a minute of some back-and-forth, things escalated to another level when Puig and a player from the Cardenales appeared to exchange blows in foul territory before a furious pushing parade moved a swath of the players — including Puig — to the backstop.
Things got even more chaotic, with players coming to even more blows, and Puig seemed to get a few shots in — and taking some himself along the way.
Both teams eventually cooled off and went to their respective dugouts after an extended fracas.
According to the boxscore, no players were ejected after the fray, though Puig was taken out for a pinch-hitter later in the eighth inning.
It’s not the first time Puig has been in the middle of a brawl.
He was in the middle of two big fights with the Reds against the Pirates in 2019, the second of which came after he was traded by Cincinnati minutes before.
The former MLB All-Star finished the game 2-for-4 with an RBI as his Tiburones squad won 12-10 and went up 2-0 in the best-of-seven series.
