http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/27/sports/baseball/new-york-yankees-toronto-blue-jays-fight-ejections.html 2016-09-27 06:56:00 Yankees Rally Past Blue Jays by Putting Up a Fight. Two of Them, Actually. Bench-clearing incidents in the top and bottom of the second inning resulted in four ejections, and the Yankees took the lead in the ninth with two home runs. === TORONTO — As the losses have piled up for the Girardi’s praise became quite literal on Monday night. The Yankees, determined not to lose again to the The win would have felt redemptive in many ways for the Yankees, who had lost 11 of their previous 14 games — including the last two in torturous fashion to the Blue Jays. But the victory was especially sweet given the two dust-ups early in the game, which led to the ejections of four Yankees (pitcher Luis Severino, the pitching coach Larry Rothschild, the bench coach Rob Thomson and Girardi) and also left the rookie Tyler Austin with a welt near his eye. When Teixeira, with one out in the ninth and the Yankees trailing by 3-2, belted the first pitch he saw from Blue Jays reliever Jason Grilli high and deep to right, he held his follow-through for a moment. Then the usually businesslike Teixeira added an extra flourish, flipping his bat toward the Yankees’ dugout. “Those guys do it all the time,” said Teixeira, who flipped his bat earlier this season when he hit his 400th home run. “They have fun with it. It’s the first time I’ve ever done it.” As he rounded third and headed for home, Grilli let Teixeira know he did not appreciate the demonstration, but he did nothing to stop it — or the Yankees’ continued assault. Yankees shortstop Didi Gregorius followed with a single before Aaron Hicks blasted another homer to right, which he celebrated by slapping his hands together in the batter’s box. The Yankees added two more runs, which proved more than enough to survive another shaky appearance by reliever Dellin Betances. After Betances walked two and fumbled away a bunt to load the bases with none out, the left-handed specialist Tommy Layne — the Yankees’ eighth pitcher — came on to face a parade of right-handers. He retired Josh Donaldson on a fly ball but walked Edwin Encarnacion to force in a run. The Blue Jays scored another run when Dioner Navarro’s soft fly ball to right field fell in after being deflected by Hicks. But Layne grabbed Russell Martin’s dribbler in front of the plate and dived on home plate to force out Darwin Barney just before he came sliding in. Brett Gardner then made a sliding catch in foul territory of Troy Tulowitzki’s fly ball to end the game. The win gave the Yankees a boost after a miserable trip, which began with a crushing walk-off defeat at Fenway Park and ends with them returning home to play Boston on the brink of elimination. A loss on Tuesday against the Red Sox along with a win by Baltimore against the Blue Jays would knock the Yankees out of the wild-card race. The recent skid may have left the Yankees with plenty of frustrations to take out, but the scuffles on Monday had an innocuous beginning. When Severino nicked Donaldson with a fastball in the first inning, the contact was so incidental that catcher Gary Sanchez still caught the ball. Donaldson did not seem bothered, dropping his bat and elbow guard at home plate and taking first base. But the mood soured when the Yankees batted in the second inning. J. A. Happ threw a ball inside to Chase Headley on the first pitch, then hit him in the left hip with the next pitch. If the retaliation seemed excessive, perhaps another factor was at work: In the series opener, the Yankees rookie Ben Heller hit Jose Bautista in the back in the ninth inning of a Blue Jays blowout. Nevertheless, as soon as Headley was hit, the home-plate umpire, Todd Tichenor, immediately warned both managers that the next hit batter would result in ejections of the pitcher and his manager. The warning set off Girardi, who in the past has complained that umpires are not punishing the pitcher who retaliates. As he charged onto the field, the dugouts and bullpens emptied. Girardi was ejected, and pitcher C. C. Sabathia had some words with the Blue Jays, but after a few minutes of milling around, both teams returned to their places. The calm did not last long. Severino threw an inside pitch to Justin Smoak leading off the second, then hit Smoak in the foot with the next pitch. If Severino’s intentions were in doubt, he cleared them up by dropping his glove and motioning to Smoak to come and get him. This time the scrum was more energetic. Sanchez, who had at first restrained Severino, later had to be held back from Martin by the hitting coach Alan Cockrell and the backup catcher Austin Romine. Severino and Thomson, who was filling in for Girardi, were automatically ejected, and as the situation calmed down, Rothschild was ejected after he yelled at the umpires. No Blue Jays were ejected.