Tensions rose during Saturday night’s Cleveland Guardians and Chicago White Sox game at Progressive Field in Cleveland when a brawl between two opponents broke out, resulting in a knockout.
A Twitter clip from Sports Center showed the scuffle happened in the sixth inning with the White Sox in the lead — 5-0. Guardians’ José Ramírez, 30, glided to second base just as White Sox Tim Anderson, 30, caught the ball, but Ramírez touched the base before his opponent tagged him. The umpire ruled Ramírez safe.
Jose Ramirez and Tim Anderson started quite the brawl in Cleveland ?
(via @NBCSWhiteSox)pic.twitter.com/i80OeXD2dF
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) August 6, 2023
While remaining on the ground, Ramírez turned toward Anderson to exchange words before rising to his feet and pointing his finger in Anderson’s face. The umpire interfered, pushing the two angry men away from each other.
After Anderson shoved Ramírez, his gloves came off, and the two squared up to each other, throwing up their dukes.
Anderson unleashed the first punch, and soon the two threw multiple punches at each other before Ramírez swung a right hook, hitting Anderson’s chin and knocking him out.
It took a while for both teams to emerge from the bullpen to break the two up. White Sox Michael Kopech had to peel Ramírez off his teammate before the Guardians came into camera view to interfere. Towards the end of the video, people continued to hold back a raging Anderson who attempted to walk toward the Guardian’s third baseman’s area.
According to TMZ, the umpire expelled the two from the game, and the home crowd cheered on slugger Ramírez as he walked away.
During an interview in the locker room, Ramírez explained Anderson had tagged him really hard, and the White Sox Shortstop intended to fight.
“I think he’s been disrespecting the game for a while now, and it’s not from just today,” Ramírez told reporters with a translator’s help. “As the play happened, he tagged me really hard, and then he wanted to fight, so I defended myself.”
The game resulted in the White Sox’s victory over the Guardians, 7-4.
According to the Bleacher Report, Anderson tweeted but deleted, “He got off me. We ain’t tripping (sic) bout that…this s**t bigger… we’ll catch up with em later.”
Tim Anderson posted then deleted this after fight with José Ramírez ? pic.twitter.com/FCdRgmsIFy
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) August 7, 2023
