Blue Jays and Yankees finish season series with two bench-clearing showdowns
The Blue Jays and Yankees had themselves a pretty intense September baseball game on Monday night, as the divisional rivals cleared the benches twice in the first two innings.
It all started with a first-inning pitch that hit Jays slugger Josh Donaldson. It didn't appear to be intentional, as Luis Severino let a pitch get away from him and the inside fastball grazed Donaldson's elbow. He also walked two batters in that first inning, so his control clearly wasn't great.
But Toronto felt like it needed to respond for some reason, so, in the next half inning, J.A. Happ went after New York's Chase Headley. Happ first threw a pitch behind Headley, then plunked him in the lower body immediately after.
That led to both teams briefly spilling out of their respective dugouts. No punches were exchanged, but Joe Girardi was ejected from the game, likely for arguing that Happ should have been thrown out.
It wasn't over there, though. In the next half inning, Severino returned to the mound and went right back at Toronto's Justin Smoak, throwing behind him and then proceeding to plunk him on the next pitch. As you'd imagine, that sparked another benches-clearing confrontation. This one was a little more intense.
After that, three additional guys from the Yankees -- Severino, bench coach Rob Thomson and pitching coach Larry Rothschild -- were ejected and joined Girardi in the clubhouse. Nobody from the Blue Jays got sent packing.
It was the finale of the season series between these two divisional opponents, so it seems that they wanted to settle all their scores before the long offseason. It made for a dramatic start to Monday's game, though the finish may have been even better. The Yankees plated five runs in the ninth to take the lead and then came up with a big-time catch to end the game while the Jays had the bases loaded.
