Rangers, Astros involved in benches-clearing brouhaha after Adolis Garcia grand slam

Texas Rangers slugger Adolis Garcia broke Wednesday night’s game against the Houston Astros wide open when he hit a grand slam in the fifth inning to make it a 13-3 game, and that was when things got interesting.

Garcia launched one 448 feet to left center field in Houston off Seth Martinez. It was his 25th dinger of the season. As Garcia trotted and crossed home plate, Astros catcher Martin Maldonado had some words for the batter as well as Marcus Semien when he crossed the plate as well.

The benches cleared, and Maldonado and Semien were both ejected from the game.

Texas would win the game 13-5.

“After I scored on Adolis’ grand slam, I told (Maldonado), ‘I told you we were going to win this game,’ and all of a sudden, their bench is out there and both of us are out of the game,” Semien said after the game. “I didn’t want to get thrown out of the game. I just was talking to him.”

Maldonado said he was told he was ejected for starting the benches-clearing situation.

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“Two guys competing against each other and exchanging words,” he said. “Two teams that want to win. It’s something that happens between the lines.”

Both benches were warned earlier in the game after Astros pitcher Framber Valdez hit Semien in the shoulder with a pitch. It appeared to be retaliation after Andrew Heaney hit Yordan Alvarez in the right shoulder with a pitch in the first inning.

“Obviously, Andrew did not try to hit Yordan, and I got hit with a four-seam fastball from a sinkerballer,” Semien said. “I felt like it was on purpose. I walked to first base. I ended up scoring on the home run, and I told Martín, ‘We’re going to win this game.’ We proceeded to score 11 runs after that. I said ‘I told you,’ and I ended up out of the game.”

Texas improved to 60-43 with the win and Houston fell to 58-45.