Yankees and Tigers Provide an Actual Benches-Clearing Brawl

The Yankees are looking for a sweep of the Tigers in Detroit this afternoon and—oh hell yeah, a motherfucking basebrawl! Usually these things are more like a highly anticipated boxing match between two big-time fighters that slowly devolves into a farcical exhibition of flailing arms and a bunch of hold me back, hold me back! posturing, but not today at Comerica.

In the sixth inning, Yankees reliever Tommy Kahnle was ejected for plunking Miguel Cabrera in the hip. The umpires deemed it retaliation for Tigers starter Michael Fulmer hitting Gary Sanchez after Sanchez had gone yard yet again. Joe Girardi was ejected and after the dust settled, Aroldis Chapman was called in to resume the game.

But!

Yankees catcher Austin Romine and Cabrera were still jawing at each other a little bit, with Romine claiming they weren't trying to hit the Tigers first baseman. Somewhere the conversation went south and Romine took off his mask, and Cabrera responded by shoving him in the chest and putting up his dukes. Then, the deluge.

After the dust resettled, Romine and Cabrera joined Girardi and Kahnle on the ejected list, but it seems fairly obvious that Cabrera should take the brunt of the punishment going forward.

Meanwhile, the Yankees, who had been trailing 6-3, clawed all the way back when El Gary himself, the man at the root of this whole melee, tied the score at 6-6 with an RBI single the next inning.

Aaaaaaaand Dellin Betances just drilled James McCann in the head in the bottom of the seventh. Betances was promptly ejected, and then Yankees bench coach, Robby Thompson, covering for the ejected Girardi, also got ejected. The Yankees might not have any players or coaches to finish this one. It's wild, folks.

Update: A Yankees pitcher has hit another Tigers batter, this time David Robertson plunked John Hicks. Just consider this a constant update, with the teams and names interchangeable as we are still in the seventh inning.

Update 2: Here's a nice image from the boxscore. It is currently the eighth inning.