What was reminiscent of the Malice at the Palace, the Tigers and the Yankees cleared the benches three times during this afternoon’s fracas game. It all started with a Michael Fulmer fastball to the ribs of Gary Sanchez, then Miguel Cabrera and Austin Romine scuffled, James McCann was hit in the head, and then Alex Wilson plunked Todd Frazier.
With all of the chaos of the fights that broke out, especially after the McCann beaning, what seems to be lost in all of it was a moment in the Tigers dugout. The camera panned from an irate Yankees bench coach, Rob Thompson arguing with the umpire to a shot of Victor Martinez and Justin Verlander seemingly exchanging words in a not-so-agreeable way. These didn’t seem like pleasantries and Victor looked as if he needed to be restrained–mildly.
https://twitter.com/Jesse__Foster/status/900823861490528256
Victor Martinez is mad at Justin Verlander. Maybe Verlander will actually get traded now? pic.twitter.com/PiL7Lo3RT8
— Meditations in Panic City (@MedInPanicCity) August 24, 2017
Whatever was being said in these moments one thing is sure: the Tigers season has been lost. They can rally around each other all they want and fight for each other when someone gets drilled, but at the end of the day, the scene above speaks louder volumes than any brawl does.
Two veterans going at it who are supposed to be the leaders of your team. It speaks to the character and mentality of this team. And it is the exact reason why they sit at 15 games under .500. No brawl, or three, is going to change that. This dugout scene is everything we need to know and see about this team.
