Kurt Suzuki wasted no time assigning blame for Angels-Braves brawl to obvious source

On Tuesday night, the Los Angeles Angels found themselves amidst an unexpected brawl with the Braves. There wasn't really any known bad blood between the two squads, and the teams share former executives and players. Of all the inter-league match-ups, this one felt like it would be pretty tame, but Reynaldo Lopez and Jorge Soler had other plans.

Soler has owned Lopez during the course of their careers, and he homered off of him earlier in the game. So, when Lopez went way up and in on Soler in the fifth inning, it was pretty understandable that Soler would both take exception to it and think it was done on purpose.

The brawl unfolded, and while both Lopez and Soler were ejected, it was somewhat fortunate that no one got seriously injured in the scrum. However, after the game, Angels manager Kurt Suzuki made it clear who he thought was in the right for the fight, and it definitely wasn't Lopez.

Kurt Suzuki casts blame squarely on Reynaldo Lopez, Braves for benches-clearing brawl

No one realistically thought that Suzuki would do anything but have Soler's back. A big part of a manager's job is to stand up for his players, and it would have been a bad look for the new manager to immediately throw his own players under the bus. However, Suzuki's comments after the game raise some important points and make it clear that he thinks Lopez was in the wrong.

“I don't blame Jorge one bit. You get thrown at your head, you have a family, a career. It's dangerous. I know it happens. But if you ask any hitter and a ball gets thrown near their head, especially after hitting a homer, it’s not good.”

Suzuki kind of has a point here. Soler got buzzed after a career-long dominance of Lopez and hitting a homer off of him earlier in the same game. As Soler himself pointed out afterwards, Lopez didn't seem to have any command issues against anyone else on the Angels. Soler also said that he came after Lopez due to something Lopez said after the pitch, followed by the pitcher approaching him. That paints a pretty clear picture.

Unfortunately, both teams now have to deal with the real possibility that MLB is going to hand out some suspensions as a result of the brawl. Lopez appears to be a prime candidate, especially since he struck Soler with a ball in his hand, but Soler could get popped as well. Regardless of what the suspensions look like, the Angels' stance on what happened and why is crystal clear.