Three brawls result in eight ejections
DETROIT — Once slugger Miguel Cabrera wrestled Yankees catcher Austin Romine to the ground at home plate, an afternoon game at Comerica Park collapsed into total chaos.
All the testiness that had been building between the Detroit Tigers and New York finally boiled over. The toll of Thursday’s fury: three bench-clearing altercations, eight ejections, one beaning and a lot of angry words.
“I’m sure there are going to be suspensions on both sides,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said after a 10-6 loss.
The winning and losing pitchers — Detroit’s Alex Wilson (2-4) and New York’s Dellin Betances (35) — were among those tossed. So were Girardi and Tigers manager Brad Ausmus.
At one point, the ill will carried over to the Detroit dugout, where star pitcher Justin Verlander and teammate Victor Martinez appeared to get into some sort of dispute.
Girardi contended an early warning would’ve cut off the trouble before it escalated. He blamed the umps for letting things go wild, saying, “Just a very poor job on their part.”
Much later, Betances was ejected after he hit James McCann in the helmet. Betances seemed to be indicating he had thrown a breaking ball instead of a fastball, and he wound up shouting at the Tigers and the umps.
Although Cabrera vs. Romine was the peak of the hostilities, McCann’s beaning was the most frightening.
“You don’t want to see people hit in the head. You don’t want to see fighting on the field,” Cabrera said. “But people have to understand we’re human.”
The problems between these teams began well before Tommy Kahnle threw behind Cabrera in the sixth inning. Last month, they had a game at Yankee Stadium in which four batters were hit.
This time, Michael Fulmer hit Sanchez with a pitch in the fifth, an inning after Sanchez had homered for the fourth time in this three-game series.
“If you can’t see that Fulmer clearly hit Sanchez on purpose, there’s something wrong,” Girardi said.
2B Yoan Moncada and OF Leury Garcia left Thursday’s game against the Twins with injuries.
Moncada, widely regarded as one of baseball’s top prospects, was replaced in the field before the Twins batted in the sixth inning. The team says he has shin splints in his right leg.
Garcia was pulled after three innings with back stiffness on his right side. He is day-to-day.
1B Carlos Santana has missed three straight starts because of tightness in his back. Santana is hitting .250 with 18 home runs and 64 RBIs.
The club placed C Jason Castro on the seven-day disabled list with a concussion and recalled OF Zack Granite.
Castro, who spent the previous six seasons with the Astros, took three foul balls off his face mask in Wednesday night’s 4-3 loss to the White Sox. Manager Paul Molitor said he suffered dizziness as the game wore on.
He left after the fifth inning with concussion-like symptoms.
The Mets will place All-Star OF Michael Conforto on the DL and are considering surgery after he dislocated and suffered a tear in his left shoulder while swinging at a pitch in Thursday’s game.
Asked if Conforto’s season was over, manager Terry Collins said, “I can’t go out there and predict that,” but that was before an MRI exam revealed a tear in the posterior capsule of the shoulder.
Conforto is hitting .279 with 27 home runs and 68 RBIs as New York gets set for a series at Washington.