The Atlanta Braves are currently riding high on a 12-game win streak after defeating the Washington Nationals on Tuesday night. However, that achievement is being overshadowed by an incident that caused benches to clear. After Bryce Harper was hit by a pitch from Julio Teheran, the two throw out some choice words for each other. Then, the two franchise's Twitter accounts decided to get involved, making the whole thing worth of a few laughs.
Harper has not exactly earned the greatest reputation in baseball. While no one doubts the talent he holds, many hate his attitude and that came to blows on Tuesday night. Harper first smashed a solo home run out to center field off of Teheran in the bottom of the third inning to tie the game at the time. Harper appeared to take his time admiring his hit and was slow to move around the bases.
Naturally, the next time he came up to bat, Teheran "accidently" hit him with a pitch, striking up an argument. The benches and bullpens for both teams cleared as players sprinted onto the field. Order was quickly restored, but that did not stop Twitter from getting involved.
The Braves account stuck first, tweeting, "Clown move bro." Creative, Braves. However the Nationals followed up with, "Which part, giving up the home run, or drilling the 20-year-old on the first pitch his next time up?" Retired Braves third baseman Chipper Jones also took part in the war of words, throwing out, "Don't walk off homers and u won't get hit!" Boom.
While the Nationals may have won the social media spat, that was the only thing they won. Harper closed out his big night by striking out on a 99 MPH fastball from closer Craig Kimbrel, giving the Braves the 2-1 victory. With that loss, the Nationals dropped their second straight game to Atlanta and have lost nine of 12 games to their National League rivals.
After the game, both teams had a few things to say over the pitch. Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez insisted that Teheran's pitched was not on purpose, something the pitcher himself echoed several times. Washington manager Davey Johnson said the team would file it away for future reference. Harper would not dive too far into it, simply saying it is all a part of baseball, but recognizing that Teheran probably was not too happy with him since he hit the first pitch pretty far. Wednesday night's game should be interesting.
