The Miami Marlins lost a wild game against the Milwaukee Brewers on Thursday by a final score of 4-2.
In the fifth inning, Giancarlo Stanton was hit in the face with a fastball that required him to be taken off the field by a cart. Stanton was noticeably bloodied by the pitch and it appeared to be a serious injury at the time. Stanton has a laceration on the left side of the face and is set to undergo x-rays and a CT scan.
Following the pitch to Stanton, Reed Johnson inherited the at-bat. The umpires ruled that Stanton swung at the pitch which made it a foul ball and 0-2 count. The first pitch to Johnson hit him in the hand and he did not appear to swing. However, the umpires ruled it a swing and determined it to be a strikeout to end the inning.
The Marlins bench was not pleased at two batters being hit in a row and shouted at Brewers starter Michael Fiers. This led to the benches clearing for both teams as words were exchanged but no obvious punches thrown. Casey McGehee and manager Mike Redmond were ejected during the fracas.
When the dust settled, the Marlins briefly refused to take the field for the bottom of the fifth inning. Reluctantly, they eventually did go on the field under new manager Rob Leary who normally serves as bench coach.
Both benches were warned and Anthony DeSclafani was brought into the game. The prospect would not come inside for the first few batters but would hit Carlos Gomez an inning later. Desclafani and Leary were immediately ejected from the game despite claims that the pitch was not intentional.
Hitting coach Frank Menechino then took over as manager for the remainder of the game. It was the first time that Menechino had managed a game in his big league career.
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The start was made by Nathan Eovaldi who exited before the insanity began. Eovaldi allowed four runs on eight hits in only four innings of work. The loss was charged to the right-hander and he fell to 6-11 on the season.
Marcell Ozuna hit a home run for the fourth straight game to give him 23 on the year. The two-run blast came in the eighth inning and cut the deficit in half. It would be the only runs put on the board for Miami.
The Marlins will head to Philadelphia on Friday where they will send Henderson Alvarez to the mound.
