With a 87-54 season and a guaranteed winning percentage, the Washington Nationals have not made a lot of allies. Oneof the mostremarkable incidents this season was against the Chicago Cubs on September 6th, where two bench-clearing incidents riled up the crowds and infuriated both teams. There had not been good feelings to start off the series; the Cubs had not been doing well and the Nationals beat them badly in the first two games. It all started when Nationals third base coach Bo Porter was jeered on by Cubs bench coach Jamie Quirk, which turned into a heated argument between the two of them. The umpires began to intervene, which emptied both dugouts, and even the bullpens sprung out onto the field to prevent any major fighting. The umpires eventually calmed the teams down, and they ejected Quirk, but there was still animated feelings between both teams.

In baseball, if you are winning, it is considered bad form to swing at a 3-0 pitch or steal bases, and the Nationals, arguing that they were just trying to win, used these tactics three times when they were up 5-2 in the 5th inning. In the bottom of the 6th, pitcher Lendy Castillo flung a fastball that was extremely close to Bryce Harper’s knees, enraging Harper, who assumed that Castillo was trying to hit him intentionally. Before he could reach the mound, though, Cubs catcher Steve Clevenger intercepted harper at the plate. Once again, the Cubs’ dugout emptied, followed by the Nationals’ and both teams’ bullpens. The tensions calmed down, but before the teams could get off of the field, something was exchanged that caused both teams to storm back together and scramble in a big crowd. There were swipes, pushes, and one umpire got knocked down at the edge of the fight. Steve Clevenger tried to hit Ian Desmond, and there were angry faces and yelling through the crowd. An umpire was knocked down and Steve Clevenger was eventually ejected from the game. The spectators in the stands all stood up and either booed or cheered the fight on. The struggle held on for a minute or two, and then was dispersed as the umpires pulled the two teams apart. Tensions held for the rest of the game, but the Nationals played through to secure a 9-2 win against the Cubs.

Junior Michael Sgrecci saw the information on Twitter, and watched the highlight video after the game. “They weren’t that big, everybody came out but only a few people threw punches. They were more like disturbances,” commented Sgrecci. Junior Ronald Romero was also involved, but he watched the entire game on TV. “I thought it was bad on the Cubs’ part. They were being a bunch of babies about what the Nats were doing.” The interest in the fights spawned a large following on social media sites, and caused a large number of people to follow the Nationals more closely in the future.

(Image from http://www.washingtonpost.com, URL http://www.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_606w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2012/09/07/Sports/Images/cubs01_1346984640.jpg)