Ramón Laureano charges the Astros dugout, a breakdown
What Happened
In an August 2020 game between the Astros and A's, Oakland outfielder Ramón Laureano got hit by pitches twice in the same game and three times across the series, including a 78 mph slider from rookie Cristian Javier. After a verbal exchange where Laureano told Javier to snap his slider more, Houston hitting coach Alex Cintron started jawing and reportedly told Laureano to come fight him. Laureano took the bait, charged the Astros dugout, and got wrapped up and tackled by Dustin Garneau before benches cleared. The brawl included a Maldonado mask getting yanked off and passed around the scrum.
Why This Matters
This was peak 2020 Astros-as-villains theater, set against the lingering bad blood from the sign-stealing scandal that hung over their whole season. Laureano had real history with Houston too, since he came to the A's in a 2017 trade that Dave Stewart publicly mocked. The flashpoint here wasn't a player, it was a coach. Cintron egging on a hitter who'd already been plunked twice is exactly the kind of thing the league cracks down on hard, and MLB suspended Cintron 20 games for instigating. Laureano drew a six-game ban for charging. In a 60-game sprint, missing a chunk of the schedule actually mattered for both clubs. It's a clean example of how empty-stadium pandemic baseball still found ways to boil over.
At 3.3M views this ranks 42nd out of 1,583 Jomboy breakdowns, putting it in the top 2.7% of the entire catalog.
Key Moments
Who / What Is Involved
Players: Cristian Javier, Ramón Laureano. Teams: Astros.
Key Terms Mentioned
Full Transcript
Click timestamps to jump to that momentwell there's more drama with houston
this is a couple nights ago castiano's
young pitcher for houston i don't think
he's seen much time at double a or
aaa at all he hits loriano with that
pitch lorianno's not going to be happy
about that because he got hit by a pitch
and that doesn't feel good then a couple
days later you got this guy on the mound
his name is brandon bailey and he got
traded
for lorianno outright back in 2017
between the a's
and houston and dave stewart had some
fun things to say about that
how the a's got this guy is unbelievable
and what it took to get him is
unbelievable on houston's part
houston thank you once again you
cheaters so shots fired there calls them
cheaters also says what it took to get
him kind of a direct insult to brandon
bailey
who sees this quote when it was tweeted
out and likes it he maybe he gets it
maybe he's using it as bulletin board
material
who knows but now he's facing lauriano
in this game and he's going to plunk him
right on the shoulder with 91 mile per
hour fastball
a little high is it on purpose who knows
is loriano allowed to be upset about it
absolutely
it probably did not feel good later on
in the game dusty baker gets ejected for
arguing that strike call
so now he's out and dusty baker his job
is basically you know protect the astros
they're going to get booed and
everything
so maybe maybe someone else thinks
they're going to need to protect him
now we have the young pitcher castianas
again hits loriano again with what's
supposed to be a slider
78 miles per hour sure doesn't sting as
much as 99 but let me hit you with 78
it'll sting and he's saying hey
you're throwing it too straight you're
throwing that slide or two straight just
snap it
if you snap it you'll get the brake but
it's going straight right now
because you're just not snapping it so
just a a pitching lesson for the young
pitcher
he says hey it was a slider man it was a
slider and Laura's like i know i know um
i'm just telling him that he's going too
straight on him he needs to snap it a
little more i'm good i'm good i'll take
first base
loriano has been hit twice in this game
three times in the series
he's gonna be mad he's gonna be fired up
what he doesn't need is the houston
hitting coach egging him on and saying
come on
come on why don't you come fight me he
says get the hell out of here i don't
even know who you are he says yeah come
fight me and then he kind of takes this
first step right here
takes the first step hikes up his pants
a little bit oh yeah
hike them pants up and then he gets in a
you know a nice wide base
fighting position bring it on ramon i'm
right here i'm the hitting coach
ramon charges in let's [ __ ] go
let's [ __ ] go and then look at this
wall they built
great wall by the houston players to
protect their hitting coach just
a great wall loriano tries to go around
him garneau
wraps him up one of the better wrap ups
you'll see just
immediate gets him tangled gets him to
the ground
the hitting coach he's just kind of
hanging back in the back here
just watching the guy who invited the
fight said come on
uh let his players handle it and then
now he's just standing here
watching um this guy right here he was
the one that said come on
come fight me to the guy who just got
hit twice in the same game and was upset
about it
and he egged him han and said come fight
me uh he's just standing in the
background right there
so then a whole big old mess happens
chapman on the a's is heated
but maldonado spins around maldonado
takes away from him but now we got
the ace catcher alan he bee lines it for
maldonado it's like a hockey fight
equipment versus equipment
and they just start going straight tug
of war mode looking at each other now
we're going to have maldonado's mass
disappears
barretto number four he's going to come
up with it right here
and i don't know how it happens he walks
out of this pile
holding maldonado's mask and i don't
know at what point
that happened here's another angle well
not a mask on right
and then and then it's on and now it's
off it's like in this one frame
it's off there right okay the mask is on
his head here
and now it's off his head what happened
is
on his head here and now it's off his
head and now somehow
beretto all the way over there has it in
his hand he just drops it ramone's
getting walked off he's heated
looking great i black looks great
looking great ramon
love you dude uh my buddy i have his
batting glove we're just great friends
he says yeah man i don't care if it's a
slider just stop hitting me
and the coach stepped at me ooh
[ __ ] garneau you know this is what
happens when you have a great takedown
tackle
you're gonna get bruised up you're going
to this one was brought to you by
talking baseball
it's a podcast i'm on it that's me and
my boy ramon loriana right there
hey man you like the astros no