Padres and Giants Benches Clear

On Tuesday, July 21 at the San Diego Padres game the benches cleared and there was almost one good ol’ fashion baseball brawl. Why did the fight almost happen? Well, it all started with Padres pitcher, Dale Thayer giving up a grand slam to San Fransisco Giants catcher, Hector Sanchez. After Sanchez absolutely annihilated the ball, he flipped his bat in a cocky way and began to run the bases. Thayer, did not like the bat flip one bit so he pulled the gum out of his mouth and threw it at Sanchez. But that’s not what caused the fight, Sanchez says he had no idea:

“I didn’t notice,” Sanchez said. “I’m just trying to enjoy the game. It’s a grand slam. You don’t hit them every day. If someone gets mad, I don’t know the reason. I’m just enjoying the game.”

The actions that lead to the fight didn’t actually start until the ninth inning when Padres relief pitcher, Shawn Kelley, thew a couple of pitches that were a bit too inside to Sanchez.  Sanchez then grounded out and on the way back to the bench, he and some Padres players started mouthing off back and fourth, which lead to the overly dramatic bench-clearing that ultimately lead to nothing. Kelly thought that Sanchez’s bat flip was uncalled for and came to his teammates defense saying:

“I guess that’s part of the game now,” Kelley said. “To me, that’s a little disrespectful, especially to Dale (Thayer). I don’t think there’s a place in this game for that, but it’s part of it. Guys admire what they do, and when you get one, sometimes guys watch it. But…that’s not our business.”

But the sad truth to this story is that the Padres, after the time of the grad slam had no real chance to win anyway, so why start a fight that would basically draw more attention to the fact that their team was down by nine runs for most of the game? The Padres should be less focused on the other teams bat flips and more focused on winning games.