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The craziness that culminated from Monday night’s game between the Minnesota Twins and Chicago White Sox just got a bit crazier. Major League Baseball has decided to hand suspensions to two members of the Twins. One will serve the suspension, one will appeal:
Tyler Duffey has received a three-game suspension for throwing behind Yermín Mercedes on Tuesday. Duffey is appealing his suspension.
— Betsy Helfand (@betsyhelfand) May 20, 2021
Rocco Baldelli has received a one-game suspension, which he will serve tonight.
If you haven’t been paying attention to the Twins - and honestly, I wouldn’t blame you - White Sox designated hitter Yermín Mercedes hit a home run on a 3-0 pitch from Minnesota’s ace bullpen arm Willians Astudillo in a 32-1 (not the official score) blowout on Monday night. It was a 40-something mile-per-hour pitch. Old school unwritten rules say not to do that. New school doesn’t have unwritten rules.
Post game, Chicago skipper and old-school extraordinaire Tony La Russa said he was going to discipline Mercedes for hitting that home run. Many fans and players basically said, “WTF?” at his reaction. The Twins seemed to have mixed emotions from various reports.
During Tuesday night’s game, Twins reliever Tyler Duffey threw slightly behind Mercedes with the first pitch of the at bat. There were no scuffles or anything between the teams, but the umpires decided to eject Duffey for it and Minnesota manager Rocco Baldelli got ejected arguing the ejection.
Major League Baseball has handed down a three-game suspension and a fine for Duffey. Duff Man is appealing the decision and will continue to play when called upon. Baldelli is being suspended one game and does not have the luxury of appealing the decision and will not be at the helm of the ship for the second game of today’s double-header against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
2021 just keeps getting weirder and weirder.