Benches clear between Astros, Rangers after Adolis Garcia gets hit by pitch

In the bottom of the sixth inning of ALCS Game 5, Texas Rangers outfielder Adolis Garcia delivered arguably the swing of this postseason, launching a go-ahead three-run homer off Justin Verlander — then spiking his bat before starting his trot around the bases.

Garcia — who, again, had just hit the biggest homer in his entire life — took his sweet time rounding the bases, then stomped on home plate for good measure. Nothing came of it in the moment, though, and with the Astros trying to rally from a two-run deficit in the final innings, it seemed like both teams had moved on. Until Garcia came up to bat in the eighth and immediately wore a 100-mph fastball from Houston reliever Bryan Abreu.

Garcia was understandably irate, wheeling on catcher Martin Maldonado and getting right into his face. Both benches cleared within seconds, deescalating things before a true brawl could break out — with Garcia’s friends and fellow Cubans Yordan Alvarez and Jose Abreu ushering him to first base and trying to calm everything down.

There were initially no ejections, but after getting together for a few minutes, the umpiring crew decided to toss not only Garcia but also Abreu, who they ruled to have thrown at the outfielder intentionally. As you might imagine, Houston manager Dusty Baker didn’t see things the same way, pleading his case and then getting ejected himself.

On the one hand, down two with a man already on in the most important game of your season to date is very much not the moment to intentionally throw at a guy. On the other hand, though … that certainly looked intentional, right? Maldonado didn’t even set up on the inside corner, and the ball was nowhere close to the plate — heck, Abreu didn’t even react with any sort of surprise, the way you might when you just made a mistake in the eighth inning of the ALCS.

It’s also worth mentioning that there’s plenty of bad blood here, going beyond what you might expect of an in-state rivalry. Back in July, Marcus Semien didn’t take kindly to getting plunked by Houston’s Framber Valdez. Later on, Maldonado and Semien got into it at home plate after a grand slam hit by none other than Garcia.

Semien took to the press after the game, telling reporters that Maldonado had tried running his mouth — and that he was simply responding in kind.

One thing’s for sure: We really cannot wait for Game 6.