Shortly after appealing suspension, Soler goes deep for 2nd straight day

ANAHEIM -- Less than an hour after Major League Baseball announced that Angels slugger Jorge Soler received a seven-game suspension for his role in Tuesday night’s brawl with the Braves, Soler homered in his first at-bat against Atlanta in the second inning of Wednesday’s eventual 8-2 loss at Angel Stadium.

Soler is appealing the suspension, so he remained in the lineup and started in right field for the Angels. He made the most of it, smacking an 0-1 slider from right-hander Grant Holmes for his third homer of the year. It was a no-doubter, as it left the bat at 105.9 mph and went a Statcast-projected 402 feet to left field. He went 1-for-4 on the afternoon and is batting .222/.333/.444 with three homers, a double and 11 RBIs in 13 games this season. The Angels, who head to Cincinnati for a three-game series that starts on Friday, are still awaiting the results of his appeal.

“It’s obviously disappointing,” manager Kurt Suzuki said of the suspension. “Especially to lose a guy like Georgie in the clubhouse and obviously, what he's been doing on the field for us. But at the same time, I am 100 percent behind what he did. I felt like that was what he needed to do, and I support him 100 percent. And he's appealing it so we'll see how it goes after that.”

It was the second homer in as many days for Soler, who went deep off right-hander Reynaldo López in the first inning on Tuesday. He was then hit in the hand by a fastball from López in the third before he took offense to a pitch thrown to the backstop by López in the fifth. Soler stood and stared at López before charging the mound because he said he didn’t like what López said to him.

The two exchanged punches with López keeping the ball in his hand and knocking Soler’s helmet off with a swing. López was also handed a seven-game suspension for his role but had it reduced to five games after an appeal. The fracas didn’t escalate, as Braves manager Walt Weiss helped tackle Soler while Angels superstar Mike Trout held back López.

Suzuki said he talked to Weiss after Tuesday’s game and again before Wednesday’s game and said there is no animosity between the two clubs. Weiss previously served as the bench coach for the Braves when both Suzuki and Soler played in Atlanta, while Soler and López were also briefly teammates with Atlanta in ‘24.

Soler was in good spirits, however, after the game on Tuesday and seemed willing to put it past him. López called it a misunderstanding and said he never meant to intentionally throw at Soler. Soler, though, did think it was intentional so he said he did what he had to do.

“It happens,” Soler said through interpreter Jobel Jiménez on Tuesday. “It’s just the heat of the moment that happens in games.”