MIAMI – Kevin Gausman was ejected trying to settle a score with Jose Urena, so a couple of home run swings did the job instead for the Atlanta Braves.
Freddie Freeman and Brian McCann went deep against Urena – who was at the center of a melee last season with the Braves – as Atlanta beat the Miami Marlins 7-2 Friday night.
Gausman was tossed in the second inning for throwing a 97 mph fastball behind Urena. Touki Toussaint (2-0), recalled from Triple-A Gwinnett, replaced Atlanta’s starter on the mound and allowed one run in four innings with six strikeouts.
Toussaint, who is from the Miami area, called it “a special win.”
“Things happen during a game,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “We just kind of refocused and got back to work.”
Urena (1-5) allowed five runs in six innings. He said Gausman’s wayward pitch set a bad example for the fans.
“That’s the way they claim they are professional?” Urena, who is from the Dominican Republic, said in Spanish. “I’ve never had anything against them. They are the ones keeping it going.”
The series is set to continue with a game Saturday and conclude with another Sunday. Marlins manager Don Mattingly was asked if the feud between the two National League East Division teams is over.
“We’ll see,” he said.
Freeman hit his sixth home run of the season in the first inning. He has 26 career homers versus Miami, the most the 29-year-old first baseman has hit against any MLB team.
McCann hit a sacrifice fly in the fourth and a two-run homer in the sixth, his second of the season. Braves third baseman Josh Donaldson, back in the lineup after missing three games with a calf injury, contributed three hits and three RBIs.
Gausman’s first delivery to Urena was a knee-high pitch behind the batter, and plate umpire Jeff Nelson immediately signaled the ejection.
“He was ejected for intentionally throwing at the batter,” Nelson said.
The game was Urena’s first against the Braves since he was suspended for six games for intentionally hitting Atlanta’s Ronald Acuna Jr. on the arm with a pitch last August, triggering a bench-clearing confrontation.
Nelson declined to say whether that history was a factor in the ejection, but Snitker said that was part of the umpires’ rationale.
“You don’t have to agree,” Snitker said. “They’re doing their job the best they can.”
No warnings were issued before the game, but Gausman didn’t complain about being tossed for throwing behind Urena, either.
“Obviously, the umpires thought there was a reason behind it,” Gausman said, “and decided to throw me out.”
Five Braves pitchers combined on the six-hitter against the Marlins, who are last in the majors in runs.
After Gausman departed, there was no further escalation of tension between the teams. However, Mattingly was ejected by Nelson in the sixth for arguing balls and strikes.
The scheduled starting pitchers for Saturday’s 6:10 p.m. game are Atlanta’s Mike Soroka (2-1, 1.62) and Miami’s Trevor Richards (0-4, 4.64), who is winless in six starts this season even though opponents are batting .218 against him.