Huge brawl mars White Sox win

Tim Anderson and José Ramírez take exception to one another, and a five-minute melee erupted

As alluded to in a brief gamer, the 7-4 win for the White Sox in Cleveland on Saturday night was not nearly the story.

The story was this:

Before Michael Kopech was able to finish off the sixth inning of a marvelous outing, José Ramírez hit a hustle double, sliding headfirst into second and under Tim Anderson, who was covering second base. From there things got wild, as Ramírez apparently took exception to Anderson holding the bag over him, jumping up to wag a finger right in TA’s mug. Anderson was having none of it, and after a weak attempt by second-base umpire Malachi Moore to keep the two players separated, TA dropped his glove and raised his fists. After a few punches were thrown, Ramírez caught Anderson flush on the jaw, knocking him down at teammate and keystone partner Elvis Andrus just watched. By the time TA hit the infield dirt, benches had cleared, and players and managers were ejected.

What made this fracas different is that an entire second wave of fighting began, during which Cleveland third-base coach Mike Sarbaugh came flaming out after White Sox manager Pedro Grifol. In the mini melees, Eloy Jiménez had his foot or ankle stepped on (is there ever a moment of group gathering where Eloy doesn’t end up hobbling?) and Sox hitting coach Mike Tosar was nearly completely trampled as a massive wave of Cleveland big-boys huffed and puffed and came after Pedro.

Anderson and Grifol were ejected, as were Ramírez, Sarbaugh, Cleveland manager Terry Francona and closer/poser Emmanuel Clase.

Some reaction to the nonsense:

Pedro does not sound happy at all.

Here’s Terry Francona with some words, talking loud and saying nothin’.

You want to hear some serious horseshit? According to Arbiter of Playing the Right Way Just Ignore Me Jumping Up and Wagging My Finger in Your Face José Ramírez, Tim Anderson disrespects the game with ... hard tags:

Surely Anderson and Ramírez are due for suspensions, probably lengthy ones. It’s too bad that Cleveland hasn’t been able to harness its White Sox hate into an actual winning record this season.

We’ll update here, as warranted.

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