A Venezuelan winter league baseball game that featured flaring tempers and ejections spiraled out of control in the eighth inning Wednesday when a former MLB player, incensed after being struck by a pitch, turned on the catcher and hit him with his bat.
Alex Romero, a former MLB outfielder playing for Águilas del Zulia, hit Gabriel Lino of Caribes de Anzoátegui twice with his bat, and the benches for both teams immediately emptied, with players punching and kicking each other as fighting nearly carried into the stands. Caribes pitcher Angel Nesbitt, along with teammates Lino, shortstop Cesar Valera and catcher Willians Astudillo, were ejected, as was Águilas’s Romero. With the ejections of Lino and Astudillo, who plays for the Minnesota Twins, Caribes had no catchers and team captain Niuman Romero caught the rest of the game.
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