Angels Manager Phil Nevin Speaks Out After Wild Brawl With Mariners

Tensions between the Los Angeles Angels and the Seattle Mariners finally boiled over Sunday afternoon at Angel Stadium.

Both of the American League West teams cleared their benches and bullpens in the second inning of their series finale after Jesse Winker took an Andrew Wantz fastball to the hip. Wantz’s beaning appeared pretty deliberate, as it came in wake of players on both sides having their towers buzzed dating back to Friday’s opener.

The brawl, which ignited when Winker decided to stroll over toward the Angels dugout instead of walking to first base, included everything from pushes, shoves and even dugout snacks being launched onto the field. All told, the fracas prompted an 18-minute pause in a 2-1 LA win.

Given what had transpired between the division rivals in recent days, and how often they’d crossed paths of late, Angels manager wasn’t necessarily surprised to see the anger reach a tipping point.

“I mean, you play eight games in a matter of a week against the same team, things like this happen,” Nevin told reporters, per MLB.com. “Tensions just (grow). That’s baseball sometimes. Unfortunately, there’s some ugly incidents once in a while, and I think that’s just what happened today.”

Seattle and Los Angeles are slated to meet 11 more times in the regular season, all of which will be stuffed into a timespan between Aug. 5 and Sept. 19. As such, don’t be surprised if Sunday wasn’t the last time we see extracurricular activity between these longtime foes.