Benches clear after Rangers' Shawn Kelley, Twins' Marwin Gonzalez exchange words
Shawn Kelley has been involved in two incidents during the first three games of a four-game series between the Twins and Rangers in Arlington, Texas.
During Minnesota's 12-7 win Saturday night, the 35-year-old right-hander got Marwin Gonzalez to ground out for the third out of the eighth inning. Gonzalez slammed his bat down while running to first base, which led to him and Kelley jawing at each other.
The benches cleared and both players had to be held back from each other, but it was an otherwise tame situation.
A look at the harmless dugout clearing discussion in Texas pic.twitter.com/hoPAvXX8ss
— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) August 18, 2019
Kelley is the same pitcher who retaliated in Thursday's game by intentionally hitting Max Kepler with a 93 mph fastball after Jake Cave swung at a 3-0 pitch and singled when the Twins were up big in the ninth inning.
Kelley clearly follows the long arm of baseball's unwritten laws, so it wouldn't be a shock if he got mad at Gonzalez for slamming his bat down.
No one will know for sure, but Rangers manager Chris Woodward claims that neither player was yelling at each other and that it was a big misunderstanding.
“Basically two frustrated guys,” Woodward said, via the Twins. “They weren’t talking to each other. One was mad he hit a ground ball and the other was mad he gave up a run. Both kind of yelled at the same time, and one thought one was talking to the other. It was nothing. Obviously, two guys were heated. There was no beef between each other.”
Take it for what it is, but it's hard to believe considering Kelley raised the tension level just two days earlier.
Regardless, the Twins got homers from C.J. Cron and Miguel Sano, and three hits apiece from Sano, Gonzalez, Jake Cave and Jorge Polanco to pace the offense. Plus, the Indians lost so the Twins' lead in the AL Central is up to 2.5 games entering play Sunday.
Minnesota goes for the four-game sweep Sunday at 1:10 p.m.
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.