Break It Up! Nationals turn on one another with in-dugout shoving match

In the world of competitive sports, there's a strong chance that tensions could boil over between two opponents. There's a rare chance that members of the same team could get into a heated argument in front of broadcast cameras. That's what happened during the Washington Nationals game against the Miami Marlins.

Before the bottom of the second inning, Nationals starter MacKenzie Gore and Nick Senzel were spotted arguing with one another. While the two were separated by a teammate, Senzel shoved Gore. Before Gore could think about retaliating, the rest of the Nationals dugout intervened, with the starting pitcher being escorted away.

MacKenzie Gore and Nick Senzel get into shoving match in Nationals dugout

This was far from the level of the Bryce Harper-Jonathan Papelbon dugout exchange from back in 2015, when the relief pitcher grabbed the outfielder by the throat. But still, seeing teammates get into an argument and into a subsequent shoving match will open up eyes.

After the game, Gore did not divulge what exactly caused him and Senzel to get into an argument. All Gore did say was he was in the wrong, the two took care of it, and they were both over it.

“We’ve handled it in here,” said Gore, h/t MLB.com's Jessica Camerato. “I think the biggest [thing] is that that was something that I can’t do. But I’m going to leave it at that. That’s on me.”

Senzel shared a similar sentiment, saying that what the two said stays in the clubhouse.

“It’s a situation and we worked it out internally,” Senzel said. “What stays in here, stays in here -- and that’s all there really is to it.”

The Nationals did rebound in a huge way after the dugout scuffle. After trailing 1-0, the Nationals put up seven runs in the bottom of the third inning on a three-run homer by Lane Thomas and two-run singles by Joey Meneses and CJ Abrams. The Nationals picked up the 8-1 victory.

Gore had a huge game, recording 10 strikeouts and issuing just one walk, while allowing just one earned run on five hits in seven full innings of work. Now, Gore carries a 3.24 ERA, a 1.32 WHIP, and a 6-5 win-loss record this year, along with 91 strikeouts and 23 walks across 75.0 innings (14 starts).

The second game of the three-game set between the Nationals and Marlins takes place on Saturday at 4:05 p.m. ET.