[imagesource: Carlos Avila Gonzalez / The Chronicle]

When it comes to the likes of football and rugby, throwing a punch usually means a lengthy spell on the sidelines and a serious chastising from many angles.

That’s before you factor in that physical distancing measures are now in place in most sporting codes around the world, which makes the latest Major League Baseball brawl even dafter.

The league has had a number of postponements in recent weeks due to COVID-19 outbreaks amongst teams in the league, yet the Oakland Athletics and the Houston Astros remain determined to throw down.

It kicked off after Astros pitcher Humberto Castellano nailed Oakland’s Ramon Laureano with a pitch on Sunday, for the third time in the three-match series, and all hell broke loose as both benches stormed onto the field to trade blows.

Observe:

The brawl that took place in the Astros-Athletics game. pic.twitter.com/Ra27N86NYk

— ESPN (@espn) August 9, 2020

This video shows what started it all in greater detail, with Astros batting coach Alex Cintron yelling at Laureano:

That’s an Astros COACH pic.twitter.com/F0RWDvFpVH

— 95.7 The Game (@957thegame) August 9, 2020

Below from ESPN:

“Ramon’s not going over there for no reason,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said, adding of Cintron: “I think the league will know who that is and that person will get suspended. Hopefully that’s the case. Nowadays without fans in the stands and mikes everywhere my guess is they know who it is.”

Cool, but maybe players should be able to contain themselves when on the receiving end of some name-calling?

Nobody comes out of this one smelling like roses, really, especially after the league introduced stricter COVID-19 guidelines just last week, including one that everyone has to wear a face mask, or covering, while not actively playing.

Plenty of uncovered faces in this showdown, aren’t there?

We’ll leave with this video detailing the brawl in its entirety:

[source:espn]