Things got a bit heated at Oracle Park on Wednesday afternoon.
The benches and bullpens completely cleared out in the fourth inning of the Philadelphia Phillies’ 6-1 win over the San Francisco Giants. While there weren’t any punches thrown or ejections that resulted from the incident, it was still very chaotic.
The altercation started after Giants pitcher Kyle Harrison threw a pair of fastballs up and inside on Bryce Harper at the plate. The second pitch, which was nearly identical to the first he threw, left Harper clearly upset at the plate. Pretty quickly, everyone slowly charged out onto the field in response.
Harper didn’t even get involved in the scuffle. He stayed back near home plate while everyone else sorted it out.
The incident came amid what was already a heated outing for Harper, who erupted a bit in the dugout after he struck out in the first inning.
Though he likely wasn’t counting, Wednesday was actually the seven-year anniversary of Harper’s wild brawl with Hunter Strickland at Oracle Park back when he was playing for the Washington Nationals. Harper charged at Strickland on the mound after he was hit by a pitch, which marked the latest in the feud between the two players.
That fight was undoubtedly so much worse than the bench-clearing incident that took place on Wednesday.
Though he may have been trying to throw inside, it’s hard to imagine Harrison was intentionally targeting Harper given the situation. After already striking him out twice, Harrison had two strikes on Harper with two outs at the time of the incident. Harper eventually grounded out to shortstop, which ended the inning.
The Phillies led 2-0 at the time. They picked up two more in the fifth off a two-run shot from Nick Castellanos, and then added two more in the eighth after Kyle Schwarber and Harper each hit RBI singles. That pushed them to the 6-1 win, which snapped a three-game losing skid and avoided a series sweep in San Francisco.
