Yankees-Blue Jays: Jorge Posada and Jesse Carlson Brawl Tuesday Night
September 16, 2009 · Doug Rush · Jump to comments
Article Source: Bleacher Report - New York Yankees
Tuesday night’s game between the Yankees and Blue Jays was turning into a lopsided contest with Roy Halladay out-pitching Sergio Mitre. By the end of the night, all hell had broken loose in the Bronx.
It was 8-2 Blue Jays in the top of the eighth inning. Rookie relief pitcher Mark Melancon tried to pitch inside on Aaron Hill, but ended up hitting him in the back with a pitch. Hill dropped to one knee, but got up, and went over to first base. Nothing was said over it and the incident seemed to be over.
Melancon at times has been wild and hitting Hill was his fourth hit batter of the season, so he needs to work on his control.
In the bottom of the eighth inning, Blue Jays reliever Jesse Carlson threw behind Yankees catcher Jorge Posada. It was seen as intentional as home plate umpire Jim Joyce issued warnings to both benches. Posada came out and told Carlson, “You don’t want to do that.”
The at-bat resumed for Posada and he got on with a one-out walk. After Robinson Cano singled to move Posada to second, Nick Swisher flew out for the second out.
Brett Gardner singled to right to bring around Posada to score. Then all the interesting stuff began.
Carlson was near the Yankees dugout when he went to backup the play and Posada gave Carlson an elbow, a little unsportsmanlike from Posada, but he was still ticked off from having a ball thrown behind him. Joyce immediately ejected Posada for the elbow thrown at Carlson.
Carlson then cursed at Posada, which provoked Posada into charging after Carlson. Joyce, Johnny Damon, and Derek Jeter did their best to hold the two back, but Posada would have none of it and after Carlson weakly swung and missed at Posada, Jorge started wrestling with Carlson and took him to the ground. The entire benches cleared and it looked like a riot was erupting onto the field.
This wasn’t the typical stand around, push and shove baseball fight. There were wrestling matches, tackles, swinging punches. The only thing missing was Darryl Strawberry punching Armando Benitez in the face from 1998.
As the Yankees and Blue Jays players tried to restrain everyone, somewhere in the middle of the fray was Blue Jays catcher Rod Barajas and Yankees outfielder Shelley Duncan, who were tangled up in a fight of their own which was pulled apart quickly.
When the dust was settled, CC Sabathia and Andy Pettitte somehow managed to get Posada out of the pile and forced him into the Yankees dugout and into the locker room. Yankees manager Joe Girardi had a cut on his ear and a mark under his left eye. Carlson had a gash on his forehead.
According to Carlson, when Posada had him on the ground, someone managed to sneak in a shot onto Carlson. Whether or not that is actually true will never be determined.
It didn’t look like anyone was seriously injured in the fight, but more than likely, Posada and Carlson, and maybe even Barajas and Duncan, will end up with fines and suspensions.
Posada will get one for the elbow thrown and Carlson for swinging at Posada. The only question will be how long of a suspension with the season winding down.
Girardi and a lot of his players had the right idea in mind when trying to pull Posada away and stop a brawl from escalating because you never want to lose key players to suspensions or an injury in a fight that could have been prevented.
But on this night, Posada was in no mood to be messed with and he was not going to let Carlson get away with throwing at him or behind him.
By the end of the night, the Blue Jays and Yankees did resume playing the baseball game and Toronto ended up winning the game 10-4. Halladay was the winner despite allowing 11 hits, but only allowed two runs for his 15th win of the season.
Mitre took the loss and he was absolutely horrible. Mitre surrendered four home runs in five innings of work.
The Yankees will play one more game at home against Toronto tomorrow night before they hit the road and many people wonder if Tuesday night’s brawl will carry over into Wednesday night’s game and if the heated tension will continue.
Read more New York Yankees news on BleacherReport.com
Yankee Tickets
Shop Yankee
.…
ñïñ çà èÃôó!!…