MLB hands down discipline for bench-clearing melee between Guardians and White Sox

CLEVELAND — Major League Baseball handed down discipline for Saturday's bench-clearing incident between the Guardians and White Sox. The two main combatants, Cleveland's Jose Ramirez and Chicago's Tim Anderson, received the stiffest penalties. Anderson, who squared up to fight before being knocked to the ground by a Ramirez right to the chin, was suspended for six games. Ramirez, who pointed in Anderson's face to ignite the fracas, drew three games. Both will appeal the suspensions. Guardians manager Terry Francona was suspended for a game, as was third base coach Mike Sarbaugh, closer Emmanuel Clase and White Sox manager Pedro Grifol. All those disciplined, including Cleveland's Gabriel Arias and Chicago pitcher Michael Kopech, were fined undisclosed amounts. Francona and Clase served their suspensions Monday night, while Sarbaugh will not coach tonight. "When something like that happens, there's going to be a price to be paid," Francona said. "You always have your side of the story, but there's two sides to this thing. You want your guys to get none. You want them to get 20. That's probably not the way it's going to work, or supposed to." Francona praised MLB's handling of the situation. "(Senior vice president of on-field operations) Michael Hill actually reached out (Sunday)," he said. "I thought it was nice to reach out and kind of give me a heads up, like what he was thinking. He has to listen to both sides." Ramirez has been suspended for the first time in his career, while Anderson has been in trouble before. He was suspended for a game after an incident against the Royals in 2019 and was involved in a bench-clearing brawl with the Yankees last year, touched off when New York's Josh Donaldson called Anderson "Jackie," in reference to a Sports Illustrated article in which Anderson called himself the modern-day Jackie Robinson. Bad blood had been boiling between the two Central Division rivals since a four-game series in Chicago on July 27-30, when Anderson trash-talked Arias. He was riding Arias again prior to the fight Saturday and was warned by umpires. Francona was asked if he thought the suspension was long enough for Anderson, who threw the first punch to touch off the melee. "None of my concern. My concern is our guys," he said. Contact Chris Assenheimer at (440) 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com. Like him on Facebook and follow him on Twitter @CAwesomeheimer.