We see benches clear all the time in baseball these days, but it isn’t often that we see things escalate to the level that this Venezuelan bench-clearing brawl reach last week.
During a game between Cardenales de Lara and Caribes de Anzoategui, things turned ugly when Lara pitcher Luis Madero threw at Caribes batter Tomas Telis. As players from both teams made their way onto the field to exchange some words, things suddenly went from zero to 100 when former Twins and current Caribes utility man Willians Astudillo came flying out of nowhere to deliver a sucker punch to the jaw of Madero.
From there, all hell broke loose. Here are a couple of angles of the sucker punch and ensuing brawl:
In addition to the sucker punch, Madero also took a kick to the head from Telis while on the ground.
According to Septima Entrada, tensions were already running high between the two clubs after benches emptied during the meeting the previous week, when Madero was seen making a celebratory gesture towards the Caribes bench. I guess we can chalk this one up as an act of retribution, although I doubt league officials will care when they’re deciding on what types of punishments to hand out.
