During Tuesday's game between a pair of Single-A clubs in the Midwest League, it wasn't what happened on the scoreboard that had people talking. The South Bend Cubs and Fort Wayne TinCaps were involved in a benches-clearing brawl during the eighth inning of their game on Tuesday.
The two teams came together and a few punches were initially thrown. However, a member of the TinCaps threw a ball towards the scrum and that proved to ignite the brawl with several players throwing punches.
A look at the South Bend / Ft Wayne brawl. This stems from a comment made by Fort Wayne pitcher Sam Williams to SB’s Delvin Zinn #Cubs pic.twitter.com/Jw0UKqGmTN
— Darin Pritchett (@961Sportsbeat) May 26, 2021
When it was all said and done, Cubs pitcher Brandon Hughes, catcher Jake Washer, and manager Michael Ryan were ejected from the game. In addition, TinCaps second baseman Kelvin Melean was ejected.
According to Cubs Insider writer Greg Huss, the situation began when a Fort Wayne pitcher uttered something to South Bend shortstop Delvin Zinn in the previous inning, which upset Zinn. Moments later, a Fort Wayne batter said something to Hughes after he struck out. Washer motioned for the batter to head back to the dugout and that's when the melee began.
Given the severity of this brawl, the league will most definitely be reviewing the footage and suspensions would seem to be very likely.
South Bend did end up winning the game 12-10, but the situation doesn't exactly end there. The Cubs -- a Chicago Cubs affiliate and TinCaps -- a San Diego Padres affiliate -- will be playing each other through Sunday this week, so it'll be interesting to see if there's any more fireworks stemming from this brawl.
