Yankees, Tigers Involved in Brawl; Miguel Cabrera, Austin Romine Ejected

A fight that started between Miguel Cabrera and Austin Romine led the benches to clear in Thursday's matchup between the New York Yankees and Detroit Tigers.

Jason Beck of MLB.com and Mike Mazzeo of the New York Daily News described the early action:

Yankees reliever Tommy Kahnle threw at Cabrera on the previous pitch, leading to an ejection for Kahnle and manager Joe Girardi. While waiting for Aroldis Chapman to replace Kahnle on the mound, Cabrera and catcher Romine had a heated exchange and then threw punches at each other.

Romine and Cabrera were both ejected from the game, per Evan Woodbery of MLive Media Group.

Gary Sanchez moved from designated hitter to catcher to replace Romine, but he was also involved in the scuffle. According to Delia Enriquez of Bronx Pinstripes, Sanchez threw punches during the brawl, and it could earn him a suspension.

The red-hot hitter was also the center of what likely started the conflict. After Tigers pitcher Michael Fulmer allowed a home run to Sanchez in the fourth inning, Fulmer hit the batter with a pitch in his next at-bat.

It was only after Kahnle's retaliation that ejections were handed out and punches were thrown.

In the bottom of the seventh inning, Yankees reliever Dellin Betances hit Tigers catcher James McCann in the head with a 98 mile per hour fastball, and the benches cleared again, per Max Wildstein of Scout.

Betances was ejected as a result, per Mazzeo.

After the game, Justin Verlander took to Twitter to comment on the blowups:

With the Yankees going after a playoff spot and the Tigers entering the day 17 games under .500, only New York would likely be hurt by ejections and suspensions of key players.