Angels lose to Braves in fight-marred game

Jeff Fletcher, The Orange County Register on Apr 8, 2026

Published in Baseball

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ANAHEIM — Jorge Soler took the Angels’ biggest swings of the night on Tuesday, first with his bat and then with his fists.

One produced two runs and the others got him ejected.

The Angels’ designated hitter took exception to a high and tight pitch from Reynaldo López, sparking a fight that was the most memorable part of the Angels’ 7-2 loss to the Atlanta Braves.

Soler put the Angels on the scoreboard in the first inning by drilling a home run against López, which continued his domination of López. It was the fifth homer Soler had hit in 23 at-bats against López. He has 13 hits against him.

The next time Soler came to the plate, López hit him in the hand with a pitch. Soler jogged to first base without incident.

Two innings later, Lopez’s first pitch to Soler was a 97 mph fastball that sailed past his head.

The ball went all the way back to the screen and then bounced back hard enough for catcher Jonah Heim to have a play on Nolan Schanuel as he tried to advance to second. Schanuel was safe, and then the Braves took another 10 seconds or so to decide if they wanted to challenge the call.

After that, Soler began marching out to the mound and yelling at López, who was his teammate during the second half of 2024 with the Braves. Players from both teams spilled out of their dugouts and the bullpens as Soler took a couple of swings at López. He didn’t connect solidly with any of them.

From there it was just a mass of humanity on the field, as players tried to separate Soler and López. Braves manager Walt Weiss, who was the bench coach when Soler played in Atlanta, tackled Soler.

At the end of the melee, both Soler and López were ejected, with possible suspensions looming.

The Angels (6-6) ultimately had more fight in the fight than they did in the game.

Soler’s first-inning homer was one of only six Angels hits, and they didn’t score another run.

Zach Neto and Mike Trout were hitless in eight at-bats – with six strikeouts – before each singled in the ninth, down by five runs. Trout’s hit was a blooper that dropped because of a miscommunication. The Angels struck out 14 times.

The Angels had opportunities with runners in scoring position in the sixth and eighth but they came up empty.

Meanwhile, Angels starter Yusei Kikuchi was not sharp. Kikuchi gave up four runs in five innings, three of them coming in the third inning.

Kikuchi started the inning with a walk, the same way the five-run inning last week in Chicago began.

He then threw a wild pitch and gave up a run-scoring single to Austin Riley. Mauricio Dubon doubled. A deep fly ball drove in the go-ahead run. Heim’s bloop single knocked in an insurance run.

Kikuchi at least managed to tack on a clean fifth inning, with two strikeouts, to give him something positive to take into this next start. He had eight strikeouts in the game.

Three starts into the season, Kikuchi has a 6.75 ERA. Even in the first game, which the Angels won, his pitch count knocked him out of the game after 4⅓ innings. In the other two games, big innings cost him.