Cubs-Reds game gets ugly as benches clear over near-beanballs (Video)

The Cubs and Reds nearly got into a brawl as benches cleared on Saturday night

Rob Manfred would really prefer that MLB players keep their distance during a pandemic, but as we’ve previously seen, his leadership isn’t all that great in these sorts of situations. In Saturday’s Cubs-Reds game, frustrations boiled over, leading to three Reds getting ejected from the game in rapid fire fashion.

As funny as that video alone is, there is some backstory here. First, Reds pitcher Tejay Antone threw over Anthony Rizzo’s head, leading to a warning from the umpires. Unfortunately for both teams, the conflict didn’t end there.

The Cubs responded to the Reds, giving them some chin music as well

The Cubs responded later that game, with Adbert Alzolay throwing over Shogo Akiyama’s head. Thankfully, neither player was actually hit by a pitch, but the message was sent. The Reds dugout was not pleased, as they thought the issue had been resolved given the warning from the umpiring crew.

If you can believe it, nothing occurred despite the full benches and bullpens meeting on the first base line. As is so often the case in baseball, this was all for show, and the umpiring crew which included one Angel Hernandez responded by throwing out David Bell, Joey Votto and Jesse Winker. Oddly enough, no Cubs were ejected from the game.

MLB always finds a way to one-up itself, and on Saturday they did so with arguably the lamest benches-clearing incident we’ve ever seen.