Bench-Clearing Brawl Erupts During Canada-Mexico WBC Game

The World Baseball Classic has been criticized for all sorts of reasons since its inception in 2006, and now we can add an international brawl to that list.

Saturday evening, Team Mexico and Team Canada squared off in a first-round match-up at Chase Field in Phoenix, Ariz., then actually squared off around the home plate area in the ninth inning.

Earlier in the game, there had been some bad blood brewing between our neighbors to the north and those to the south over a late takeout slide and a collision at home plate, but in the ninth inning, Mexican pitcher Arnold Leon decided to take things into his own hands.  He threw one very inside on Canadian outfielder Rene Tosoni, prompting a warning to both benches from the home plate umpire.  Leon must've been tying his shoe or looking at the center field scoreboard because on the very next pitch, he absolutely drilled Tosoni in the back, and all hell broke loose.

Both benches came storming out, meeting around home plate.  In baseball, bench-clearing brawls usually end up with a lot of pushing and shoving, but apparently in international baseball, you get an all out war.  In the videos posted here, there are several scraps that break off involving tackles and some serious punches.  And as if it wasn't bad enough on the field, Canadian pitching coach Denis Boucher was hit in the face with some sort of bottle as the teams were heading back to their dugouts.

Reports from during the fight and in the aftermath point to Red Sox pitcher Alfredo Aceves being one of the key combatants.  You can see him in the middle video at around the :30 second mark, in a big pile of Canadian players.  Aceves was ejected, and may face even more serious penalties as a result.

Team Canada, wanting to boost their run differential should their fate come down to a tiebreaker, bunted in the ninth inning even though they were up by six runs.  Mexican manager Rick Renteria says issue might have been taken with what the Canadians were trying to do, and they acted "in the heat of the moment."

Very bizarre scene to see in a tournament like this.  The one good thing you can take away is that North American ratings may be up when these teams play again, but with over 40 players on the field and just four umpires, its surprisingly nobody was seriously hurt.

Breaking News: Red Sox (Not Rays) Are Cowards

"I'll start hitting home runs.  I'll hit one tomorrow." - Adrian Gonzalez

And that's where it all began.  Last week, when the Red Sox were in Tampa for a series against the Rays, Gonzalez had a rough day at the plate in the penultimate game of the series.  He went 0-for-4 with 2 strikeouts, but kept a level head at the plate and instead took his frustrations out with the media instead of the umpire.

Rays starter David Price was one of the first to speak out on Gonzalez's comments, albeit a retweet.

 Moore made good on the suggestion, hitting Gonzalez in the hip in his first at-bat.  Not to be outdone, Felix Doubront planted one on Luke Scott, and both sides were even.  Well, at least until Friday night at Fenway.

In the sixth inning, Rays reliever Burke Badenhop drilled Dustin Pedroia in the back on a 2-0 count.  (We'll get back to this point later...) And in the ninth inning, already down 7-4, Sox reliever Franklin Morales attempted to hit Scott three times before landing one on his knee.

You can check out the scuffle in the video above, but as far as after the game goes, here's what Rays manager Joe Maddon had to say:

“I’m kind of curious regarding who put out the hit, because I know it wasn’t one of their players,” he said. “Truly, watch the video. The people that were incensed, obviously they’re the ones that were probably behind the effort, the really weak, cowardly effort on their part. Did I say that strongly enough? Did I make my point?”

Maddon, are you forgetting who started all of this?  Matt Moore, already seeing his season in shambles decided to take matters into his own hands and plunk Gonzalez to start all of this.  And the Red Sox are the ones who are weak and cowardly?  Give me a break.  It was the Rays who decided to start all of this garbage, and if you want to see someone who's acting cowardly, then look right at BJ Upton, who decided to start barking at a fan when he was exiting the field Friday night.  That's just embarrassing.