Guardians’ Jose Ramirez stays in lineup after Tim Anderson fight; MLB weighing discipline

Cleveland Guardians star Jose Ramirez was back in the lineup for Sunday’s series finale against the Chicago White Sox – the day after he got into a fight with shortstop Tim Anderson.

Ramirez was slotted in as the designated hitter. The White Sox kept Anderson out for the game.

MLB was still reviewing the brawl, which took about 15 minutes for umpires to sort out. Six people in total were ejected from the game. The Guardians and White Sox start their game at 12:05 p.m. ET.

White Sox manager Pedro Grifol said Anderson wasn’t injured and being out of the lineup was a planned day off. He said Chicago is resting Andrew Benintendi and Andrew Vaughn.

“He’s OK,” Grifol said of Anderson. “He was going to get a day off today just like Bennie and Vaughn. It might not look that way, but it is what it is.”

He didn’t want to discuss specifics of the altercations or possible discipline and avoided characterizing Anderson’s actions.

“I’m not going to get into that,” Grifol said. “I’ve had my conversations with Tim, but I’m not going to get into anything that happened last night. I’ll let MLB take care of all that stuff but I’m not going to talk about the fight.”

Guardians manager Terry Francona didn’t have a media availability before the game.

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The fight occurred in the bottom of the sixth inning as the White Sox led 5-1. Ramirez slid into second base underneath Anderson’s legs. The two had words and the gloves came off. Ramirez dropped Anderson as the two fought and were later separated.

Talking about the fight, Ramirez had words for Anderson.

“I felt I was able to land one,” Ramirez said through a translator. 

“He’s been disrespecting the game for a while,” he continued. “When he does something like that on the bases, he can get somebody out of the game. So I was telling him to stop doing that. After he tapped me really hard, more than needed, he said he wanted to fight and I had to defend myself.”

Anderson was not available to comment after the game. Both Ramirez and Anderson, along with the four others who were sent to the showers early, face a lengthy suspension. Anderson had to physically be carried off the field.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.