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Saturday, March 9
 
Padres, Angels have two brawls in first inning

Associated Press

TEMPE, Ariz. -- Two bench-clearing brawls. Six ejections. One inning.

It didn't take long for the spring training game between the Anaheim Angels and San Diego Padres to get ugly. It started when Angels right-hander Aaron Sele hit Ryan Klesko with a pitch with two outs in the top of the first.

Ryan Klesko
The Padres' Ryan Klesko (left) is one of six players ejected Saturday.

Klesko charged the mound to start the first brawl, and was ejected. Phil Nevin exacted some revenge by hitting a home run in the next at-bat.

But there was more payback in the bottom of the first. Padres right-hander Bobby Jones threw a pitch up and in on Angels third baseman Troy Glaus, who charged the mound on the 2-1 pitch, and both benches emptied.

Glaus and Jones were ejected, along with Padres manager Bruce Boche, Nevin and Angels third baseman Scott Spiezio.

"Nevin hit the homer and you figured that would have been enough," Spiezio said.

"You can't take liberties throwing at people's heads," Glaus said.

"I don't try to throw at people, but I try to protect my teammates," Jones said. "At some point, I knew I had to throw one up and in when they tell me that my teammate had been hit on purpose."

Klesko, in his street clothes when he jumped into the second brawl, said he thought Sele's pitch was a holdover from a June 17 interleague contest between the Padres and Seattle, Sele's team last season.

Klesko said he homered off Sele in an at-bat in which the pitcher brushed him back a couple of times. Klesko said Nevin told him Sele was angered by Klesko as he trotted around the bases and that he would hit Klesko if he faced him again in the spring. Sele denied trying to hit Klesko and called his explanation "a long theory." But he added, "If he thought I was throwing at him, he did the right thing."






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