What do you know? The Toronto Blue Jays found themselves in the middle of another fight Monday night.
The Blue Jays, who seem to find themselves in the middle of more dust-ups than any other team in Major League Baseball, threw down with the New York Yankees in the teams’ final meeting of the 2016 season.
The action began when Yankees starter Luis Severino hit Josh Donaldson with a pitch in the bottom of the first inning. Blue Jays starter J.A. Happ responded in the top of the second by throwing at Yankees third baseman Chase Headley — twice. Happ missed behind Headley with the first pitch before hitting him on his second attempt.
The benches cleared, but umpires were able to restore order — at least for the time being.
Happ wasn’t ejected, and that led to Severino taking matters into his own hands. The Yankees hurler began the bottom of the second by throwing at Justin Smoak.
That’s when things got ugly.
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We’ve seen a lot of this from the Blue Jays recently — just ask the Texas Rangers — so it’s not entirely surprising, especially considering patience probably is running thin amid Toronto’s recent slide. The Jays led the American League East by two games at the start of September and last held first place on Sept. 5. However, the red-hot Boston Red Sox ran down Toronto and took hold of the AL East, as Boston’s magic number is down to one game entering Tuesday.
After tempers finally calmed Monday night, things didn’t get much better for the Blue Jays. They coughed up a late lead and lost the game, putting them six games behind the idle Red Sox.
Thumbnail photo via Dan Hamilton/USA TODAY Sports Images
