The White Sox and Guardians turned a baseball game into a boxing match and then a bench-clearing brawl.
Chicago shortstop Tim Anderson and Cleveland third baseman Jose Ramírez exchanged punches at second base Saturday night, triggering a bench-clearing melee in the sixth inning that led to six ejections.
With the Guardians trailing 5-0 in the bottom of the sixth at Progressive Field in Cleveland, Ramirez laced an RBI double to right field off Chicago White Sox reliever to cut the deficit to 5-1.
With the Guardians trailing 5-0 in the bottom of the sixth inning, the altercation began when Ramírez slid headfirst into second after lacing an RBI double into right field off Bryan Shaw and Anderson stood over him, straddling Ramírez.
When Ramírez got up, he pointed his finger at Anderson and yelled, prompting them to square off.
Anderson, who dropped his glove and put up his hands in a fighting position, threw the first punch, setting off a brawl that saw both dugouts and bullpens empty onto the infield.
One of the umpires tried to break up the scuffle by getting in between the two players, but stepped away when he saw that wasn’t going to work.
As the benches were already clearing, Ramirez then caught Anderson with a nasty right hook, sending him to ground.
Not surprisingly, Ramirez and Anderson were ejected, but they weren’t the only ones.
Cleveland manager Terry Francona, third base coach Mike Sarbaugh and closer Emmanuel Clase, and Chicago manager Pedro Grifol were ejected for their actions later in a fight that included multiple flare-ups on the infield and in foul territory.
Once Anderson got up from the punch, he had to be forcibly taken into the dugout by members of the coaching staff.
But he returned to the field several minutes later from the clubhouse.
White Sox teammate Andrew Vaughn physically carried Anderson down the steps following the latter’s outburst.
Sarbaugh and Clase were the primary figures in subsequent escalations during the delay which took 15 minutes before order was restored.
— with AP
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