The eyes of the baseball world are on the Bronx this weekend, as the New York Yankees are playing host to the Cleveland Indians. New York is in a fight with the Los Angeles Dodgers for the best record in baseball, while Cleveland is battling the Minnesota Twins for the top spot in the American League Central.
The two sides split the first two games of the four-game series, and on Saturday afternoon, the Yankees found themselves ahead, 6-4, in the bottom of the sixth inning. For a collection of folks in pinstripes, they were unable to see out the remainder of the contest due to some good old fashion beef with the umpires.
Following a Cameron Maybin strikeout on a pitch that looked to be just outside the strike zone, Yankees manager Aaron Boone got tossed. It wasn’t exactly clear what Boone may have said or done to get the boot, but he decided he wanted to get his money’s worth, so he left the dugout to argue with home plate umpire Ben May.
This set off an awfully strange sequence of events. Brett Gardner took a bat and began hitting the top of the dugout like he was a downstairs neighbor trying to get the person above them to turn their music down. First base umpire Phil Cuzzi determined this was … something, so Gardner got the boot, too.
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"They're throwing Yankees out left and right!"#RallyTogether | @Indians pic.twitter.com/h7iyJlRYhf
— Bally Sports Cleveland (@BallySportsCLE) August 17, 2019
Umpires should pay attention to the game and not Gardner banging in the dugout pic.twitter.com/gqSFYq3o9T
— MLBdream (@MLBdream) August 17, 2019
Somehow, this was not the most absurd ejection of them all. Yankees pitcher C.C. Sabathia, who is on the injured list, gave Cuzzi a piece of his mind, which led to the umpire ejecting him.
Give me @CC_Sabathia and Phil Cuzzi in a cage match #Yankees pic.twitter.com/gNzsqrfZZx
— Jack Jokinen (@JJFromTheBronx) August 17, 2019
The most fun aspect of this may be what is going to occur on Sunday during the final game of the series. Sabathia is slated to be activated from the IL and is in line to start the game, and you can probably guess which member of the crew working this series will be behind the plate.
CC Sabathia was ejected by 1B ump Phil Cuzzi. Yes, you can be ejected when you’re on the IL. He just gets tossed from the dugout.
When Sabathia is activated tomorrow and makes the start, the home plate umpire will be…Phil Cuzzi.
— Sweeny Murti (@SweenyMurti) August 17, 2019
Baseball is capable of being very funny sometimes, like when a team and some umpires go at one another like this. Despite the ejections, the Yankees went on to win the game, 6-5.
