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Really, this is just such an Alfredo Aceves thing to happen. Aceves has been representing Mexico in the World Baseball Classic, and to that end has not been in Red Sox' camp as of late. However, he's back now, but with a few new bruises to show off. That's because Aceves was at the center of Saturday night's brawl between Canada and Mexico, one that saw Aceves throwing "wild punches" at Canadians.
If you haven't seen the brawl, well, this works as a reasonable explanation of what went down:
there were horses and a man on fire and Alfredo Aceves killed a guy with a trident
— Lana Berry (@Lana) March 10, 2013
If you like your brawls in gif form, then don't worry, we have that covered for you as well:
This wasn't just a bunch of dudes all pushing and shoving on each other in the middle of the diamond, though, and Aceves can tell you that better than anyone. From ESPN Boston:
Aceves wasn't on the mound at the time of the incident, but raced onto the field with most of his teammates after Canada's Rene Tosoni was hit by a pitch from Arnold Leon. Aceves was among four Mexican players thrown out -- the angry Boston reliever was tossed to the ground by Philadelphia minor league outfielder Tyson Gillies during the height of the altercation.
He also appeared to take several blows to the head while being held by Canadian players. Later, he was held back by Canada coach Larry Walker.
This isn't Aceves being beaten, but ESPN isn't exaggerating about Canada's response to being hit by a pitch:
There isn't expected to be any MLB-level discipline for the players involved, which is either great or terrible news depending on your view of Aceves. At least he didn't suffer any long-term damage, though, both because you don't want to see players get hurt, and also because if you really don't want him on the team, it's harder to trade him if he's carrying around a broken arm because of an in-game brawl. (Don't deny it, we know you were thinking it. We've seen your comments.)
You can find the timeline of the whole brawl here, courtesy of SB Nation's Bill Hanstock (also the source of these gifs).