The first inning of Monday’s game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and Atlanta Braves brought some fireworks, courtesy of Joe Musgrove and Josh Donaldson.
Musgrove hit Donaldson with a pitch. While Donaldson didn’t charge the mound, the two exchanged some words as he walked down the line. Eventually, the bases cleared and while no punches were thrown, it was more intense than your average bench clearing incident.
The umpires were clearly in no mood to tolerate this. While the incident produced nothing more than shoves, both Musgrove and Donaldson were ejected. Given that there was no prior history, it was surprising to see the ejection.
Given that this was the first inning of the first game of a four-game series, perhaps the umpires just wanted to squash a potential beanball war before it began.