Adolis Garcia angrily confronts catcher Martin Maldonado, not the pitcher, in bench-clearing melee after hit by pitch

You don’t always see this when there’s a slugger hit by a pitch after he celebrates a home run.

But there Adolis Garcia was, after hitting a go-ahead three-run shot earlier in Game 5 of the ALCS, confronting Houston Astros catcher Martin Maldonado instead of the Bryan Abreu, the pitcher who threw the ball at him.

Let’s rewind for a sec. It was right after that home run that Garcia took a slow walk down to first, celebrating, which is totally fine and should NOT be punished.

But was the subsequent pitch that hit him intentional? There was a man on first and the Astros were down 4-2 at the time. So you could say it wasn’t the time to throw a purpose pitch (although as I said above, that should never happen after home run celebrations).

Garcia then went after Maldonado and was ejected, along with Abreu and Houston manager Duty Baker:

The benches just cleared after the Astros hit Adolis García with this pitch 😳

(via @MLBONFOX) pic.twitter.com/B9GMQ9AGyH

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) October 20, 2023

ADOLIS GARCIA GIVES THE RANGERS THE LEAD 😳

(via @Rangers)pic.twitter.com/DvZOLbAI5Z

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) October 20, 2023