By Erwin Quiñonez
Mar 31, 2024, 12:10 PM EDT
The 2024 Major League season has begun with emotions running high. And for the second consecutive day the benches were emptied in a game, this time in the clash between the Toronto Blue Jays and Tampa Bay Rays with the Latins Génesis Cabrera and José Caballero as the protagonists.
The bottom of the seventh inning was passing when the Panamanian Caballero hit a ground ball to third base and due to a throwing error by the Rays defense, he was able to take some extra bases and tried to reach third, but was put out. At that moment he ended up colliding slightly with the Dominican Cabrera.
After said collision, Caballero complained to Cabrera for the way he pushed him after reaching third base, to which Cabrera, after exchanging a few words, gave him another even stronger push and ended up impacting his hands on the Panamanian’s face, which Before reacting he was held by shortstop Bo Bichette.
This episode caused the benches to be emptied immediately, generating a moment of tension that fortunately did not escalate since members of both coaching staffs and umpires managed to calm everyone down and sent them back to the dogouts.
Faced with this situation, the main umpire, Todd Tichenor, resolved the situation by ejecting the Dominican Genesis Cabrera, who finished this game with a line of one inning pitched in which he allowed one run, one hit and struck out an opponent.
Brewers and Mets emptied the benches for the first time in 2024
A day before this, in the opening game for the Milwaukee Brewers and New York Mets, the first bench clearing of the season occurred when Riss Hoskins ended up hitting Jeff McNeil after a slide at second base, the latter showing clear signs of annoyance and airily complained to the runner, something that caused the caves to empty.
Things did not improve the next day when Dominican pitcher Yohan Ramírez tried to hit Hoskins with a fastball that went over his back, something that caused discomfort to the batter and caused all the players to take the field again.
As in the game between the Rays and Blue Jays, the main referee chose to eject the pitcher and thus calm the situation.
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