In order to stop special players, some pitchers resort to what people like to refer as bush-league tactics. So Ian Kennedy decided to use his talents to hit Yasiel Puig in the face with a pitch, followed by going after Zach Greinke, who is just as much to blame for the brawl that ensued, and the ejections, as the result in the game between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Los Angeles Dodgers didn’t seem to matter anymore.

Because Greinke was the one who began the count of dangerous pitches, hitting both Cody Ross and then Miguel Montero, in the first bench clearing moment of the game that was easily calmed down. Later on, when Kennedy decided to pull his own version of vengeance and justice, hitting Greinke on the shoulder, nothing could hold back the mayhem.

The brawl nearly resulted in some players going into the stands, but the end result of Ian Kennedy getting ejected along with manager Kirk Gibson and coach Turner Ward for the Diamondbacks and Yasiel Puig, Ronald Belisario and hitting coach Mark McGwire for the Dodgers seemed like the most important information to pull out of the game.

There was a game actually, that even ended and carried on beyond the 7th inning brawl caused by Kennedy. It was the 41st time Kennedy has hit a batter with a pitch since 2010, but he didn’t feel there were any bad intentions or wrongdoing on his part, as pitchers usually don’t.

I thought I got him on the shoulder, but by his reaction, I figure I got him somewhere in the face. I definitely did not want to hit a guy with two strikes and put somebody like him on base. I honestly had no idea that it was that high until I saw the replay.

It was tied at 2-2 when Kennedy left the game, but from there the Dodgers took charge. David Hernandez came on with the Diamondbacks having a 3-2 lead, but he blew his fourth save of the season as Tim Federowicz hit a double off of him, which brought home Adrian Gonzalez, Andre Ethier and Juan Uribe to give the Dodgers a 7-3 win.

In all, it started out as a very impressive pitching duel between Greinke and Kennedy. Greinke left after 7 innings, allowing two hits and two runs – a home run by Jason Kubel that scored two, and Kennedy was tossed midway through the 7th inning after also giving up one two-run homer by Andre Ethier, allowing only two hits.

Puig, the rookie sensation, saw only nine pitches on the day before getting clipped in his face by Kennedy’s pitch, but still finished with 1-of-2, improving to a .471 batting average through his first nine career games, including a 1.382 OPS. He was replaced by Alex Castellanos, and didn’t show up for a postgame interview in the locker room.

After the Diamondbacks opened the series with a close 5-4 win, the tensions in the third game between the teams, with the undefeated Patrick Corbin (9-0) pitching for Arizona and Hyun-Jin Ryu starting for the Dodgers (6-2), hopefully won’t spill into another ugly bench clearing brawl.

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