Benches cleared during Saturday's Chicago White Sox-New York Yankees game in the Bronx (CHW-NYY GameTracker) following a home-plate confrontation between Sox catcher Yasmani Grandal and Josh Donaldson of the Yankees.
Here's a look:
As you see, the benches emptied, but a brawl was avoided. Chicago shortstop Tim Anderson was particularly invigorated, and that's because an earlier exchange of words with Donaldson likely precipitated what you saw above. Here's a look at that:
That in turn probably stems from an incident earlier in this season in Chicago between Anderson and Donaldson:
On another level, Saturday's contest marks the fifth time that these two teams have faced each other within a span of nine days, so perhaps there's some mutual fatigue at work. Coming into this season, the Yankees had taken three of four from Chicago this season and outscored them 32-15 over that span. That plus the Sox's disappointing start to the season (19-19 with a minus-27 run differential) may have contributed to the sour mood in place.
Whatever the underpinnings, it's most assuredly worth noting that the Yanks and Sox on Sunday will play a doubleheader.
