Benches Clear in Marlins-Brewers Game After Mike Fiers Hits 2 Straight Batters

Updates from Friday, Sept. 12

MLB PR reveals the punishments stemming from Thursday night's game:

Original Text:

Thursday's game between the Milwaukee Brewers and Miami Marlins turned ugly in the fifth inning after Mike Fiers hit two consecutive batters. 

The first was downright scary. Fiers, who was already struggling a bit with his control with three walks through 4.2 innings, hit Giancarlo Stanton in the face. The Marlins' star slugger went down in serious pain and had to be stretchered from the field. 

Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel painted the picture of the frightening scene, while also noting how visibly disturbed Fiers seemed to be:

MLB has released video of the pitch (Warning: Video contains graphic footage).

Reed Johnson, pinch-hitting for Stanton (who was ruled to have swung at the ball that hit him) came up to bat and was hit on the hand when he swung on the very next pitch. 

Casey McGehee, who was standing on the on-deck circle, went berserk and benches subsequently cleared. After it was broken up, McGehee and Marlins manager Mike Redmond were both tossed from the game, per Haudricourt:

Baseball America's Ben Badler argued that McGehee's anger towards Fiers, whose head clearly wasn't all the way in the game after the scary injury to Stanton, was understandable but not necessary: 

And it wasn't over. In the bottom of the sixth, Miami reliever Anthony DeSclafani plunked Carlos Gomez and was immediately ejected, according to Haudricourt:

The entire situation is just really unfortunate. You can see why McGehee and any member of the Marlins would be upset after watching their teammate go down in such a scary fashion, but you also have to feel for Fiers. He was shaken up, and there's no reason to think either of the pitches was intentional. 

For the rest of the game, we can only hope that cooler heads prevail and things don't escalate any further. 

It's hard to imagine things getting any uglier, but home plate umpire Jeff Kellogg and his crew need to make sure they have control of the game.