Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Aaron Sanchez and manager John Gibbons have been suspended by Major League Baseball for their involvement in a bench-clearing spat with the Kansas City Royals on Sunday.
MLB announced the suspensions and their lengths on Tuesday afternoon:
The feud between the Royals and Blue Jays began in the first inning of Sunday’s game at the Rogers Centre when Kansas City’s Edinson Volquez hit Toronto’s Josh Donaldson. Volquez proceeded to throw high and inside to Donaldson in his next at-bat.
Things escalated later in the game when reliever Ryan Madson hit new Blue Jay Troy Tulowitzki in the right forearm and then threw high and inside again to Donaldson, who stepped out and implored umpire Jim Wolf to eject the Royals pitcher. But Madson remained in the game.
Sanchez entered the game in the top of the eighth inning and hit Kansas City’s Alcides Escobar in the leg, which led to his ejection by Wolf. Gibbons was then ejected for arguing with Wolf.
For highlights of the events courtesy of Sporting News, click here.
According to the Toronto Star‘s Brendan Kennedy, Gibbons is the first Blue Jays manager suspended in quite some time:
Both benches and bullpens emptied, but things remained somewhat tame as the two rosters merely jawed at each other near the pitcher’s mound with some pushing and shoving.
Gibbons will miss the second game of the Blue Jays’ four-game series with the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday, while Sanchez is ineligible to play until Toronto begins its series with the New York Yankees on Friday.
Sanchez started the season as a starter and has since moved to the bullpen, where he has been the eighth-inning man for a Blue Jays team that acquired Tulowitzki early last week and pitcher David Price at the trade deadline in order to mount a charge for the American League East title.
Toronto sits 5.5 games behind the division-leading Yankees and is hitting its stride, winning five of its last six games, including three of four from the Royals, the best team in the American League.
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