Any time the benches clear in MLB, people take notice.
The benches cleared when the Boston Red Sox took on the Baltimore Orioles on Friday night, and so the baseball world paid attention.
The thing is, it was hard to find a great reason for what happened.
In the end, there’s really only one logical explanation, and it’s a pretty soft one. But it’s the best way to explain what happened.
Why Did The Benches Clear?
The benches cleared because of a conflict at the second base bag.
The Orioles had Blaze Alexander on first, and a potential ground ball double play featured Alexander running toward second base. In the old days, a hard slide could follow. Now, there are a lot of rules against such moves to break up a double play.
Alexander still thought about doing something, though. When he slid in, he stuck out his left arm, as if to grab the middle infielder.
Replays show Alexander made no contact, or maybe a miniscule amount. But that didn’t make the Red Sox feel better about it.
It’s worth noting that a slide by Boston’s Jahmai Jones the night before seemed to upset Alexander a bit in the moment.
While camera angles didn’t show it, it seems like one of the middle infielders might’ve gotten upset with Alexander about what happened:
The benches clear in Boston at the end of the 8th inning š pic.twitter.com/coDD0aVRHx
ā Just Baseball (@JustBB_Media) September 5, 2026
In the end, everyone did that just-stand-around routine when they got out on the field.
The Red Sox got the last laugh on the night, too. Mickey Gasper’s solo home run stood up as the only run of the game in a 1-0 victory.
Punishments?
While it will be up to MLB to decide if anyone needs to be punished here, first glance makes it seem like that won’t happen.
Camera angles didn’t capture any kinds of punches or tackles. Even the Alexander slide itself was relatively tame, just a bit unpleasant.
There’s always the chance MLB decides to make an example of someone, if it didn’t like part of what it saw.
On the flip side, though, there’s only so much the league can do for an incident that amounted to pretty much nothing.
One part of this that would help things feel a bit more obvious is if there was a camera replay of what happened at second base after the Alexander slide. Everything circulating on social media at the moment cuts away from that portion of the play until it’s clear there’s a dispute going on.
If there’s a view somewhere of what happened in the middle of the play, that could go a long way toward determining if any further action needs to be taken here.
Red Sox Benches Clear for Seemingly Minor Reason Vs. Orioles