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Blue Jays, Yankees have beanball back-and-forth, benches clear

TORONTO – The Blue Jays, still in the playoff hunt, and Yankees, all but out of it, engaged in a beanball back-and-forth Monday night that saw three batters get hit and the benches clear twice.

Yankees right-hander Luis Severino was summoned from the bullpen to make a spot start for injured ace Masahiro Tanaka and his first inning on the mound was, to put it lightly, effectively wild. He gave up one run but walked two and hit Josh Donaldson with a pitch. As the Blue Jays have felt Donaldson has been the unfair target of fastballs before what followed shouldn’t be too surprising, even if Severino was struggling with his command and didn’t intend to plunk the reigning AL MVP.

In the top of the second, Blue Jays starter J.A. Happ threw a fastball behind the first batter he faced, Chase Headley, and connected on the second attempt, causing the umpire to warn both teams and both benches and bullpens to clear. An irate Joe Girardi was tossed, his contention being that Happ should have been warned, or even ejected, when he missed with the first pitch instead of waiting to warn the teams once Headley had been hit.

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Those warnings, however, didn’t end the nonsense. Severino returned in the second and like Happ he fired at the first batter to step in the box, Justin Smoak, and missed. Surprisingly, Severino wasn’t ejected right away and he made no mistake on his second attempt, plunking Smoak.

Severino was immediately tossed and the benches and bullpens cleared again. This time the conflict escalated beyond the usual light pushing and shoving. There were no punches this time around either, but the scrum was contentious, covering quite a bit of ground, and Blue Jays reliever Joaquin Benoit appeared to limp away from the mayhem and back toward the clubhouse.

Josh Donaldson's hit-by-pitch started the madness in Toronto. (AP Photo via The Canadian Press)
Josh Donaldson’s hit-by-pitch started the madness in Toronto. (AP Photo via The Canadian Press)

Once the drama had finally settled down, Yankees bench coach Rob Thomson and pitching coach Larry Rothschild joined Girardi in the clubhouse, while no one from Toronto was thrown out.

Pitching inside is part of the game and it can be difficult for umpires to assess what’s intentional and what isn’t. Sometime teams have trouble making that distinction, too, which can lead to the kind of incidents that took place at Rogers Centre. Throwing baseballs at opposing players doesn’t provide a positive solution, but it remains a part of the game’s fabric, for better or worse.

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Israel Fehr is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at israelfehr@yahoo.ca or follow him on Twitter.