In a game between the St. Louis Cardinals and the San Diego Padres, the benches cleared for the second consecutive night on Saturday. Willson Contreras of the Cardinals and Manny Machado of the Padres were hit by pitches twice.
The benches-clearing incident occurred in the ninth inning, during the Padres’ 3-1 victory. Machado protested after being hit by a pitch from Andre Granillo. Cardinals coach Jon Jay, who had been exchanging words with Machado, was ejected from the game.
Contreras was hit by a pitch from Robert Suarez in the ninth inning, which brought the tying run to the plate. Suarez then managed to get the last two outs and finished the game.
The tension on Saturday began when a Randy Vasquez pitch hit Contreras on the wrist. Vasquez appeared to apologize later.
Contreras had already been hit by a Nick Pivetta pitch the night before, which led to another incident that emptied the benches.
When the Padres batted in the fifth inning, Kyle Leahy’s first pitch hit Machado, which led the umpire crew to issue warnings to both teams.
