Donaldson, Pillar avoid suspensions for brawl

Josh Donaldson and Kevin Pillar are off the hook after the benches-clearing brawl between the Toronto Blue Jays and Texas Rangers on Sunday.

Donaldson and Pillar won't be suspended for their roles during the brawl, Major League Baseball announced Tuesday. Donaldson, however, was fined $1,000, according to USA Today's Bob Nightengale.

(Courtesy: MLB.com)

The news follows three-game suspensions being handed to Blue Jays skipper John Gibbons and pitcher Jesse Chavez, a one-game suspension for Jose Bautista, while Texas Rangers infielders Elvis Andrus (one game) and Rougned Odor (eight games) were also given bans.

Donaldson was ejected from the contest Sunday, while Pillar was not. The outfielder was seen racing to the scene to help teammate Bautista after he was struck in the face by Odor.

"You’ve got to have no fear," Pillar told Robert MacLeod of The Globe and Mail after Sunday's altercation. "Once a punch is thrown, anything goes. If it was your typical baseball scuffle, where it’s just pushing and shoving, you might go out there with different intent, to separate it so things don’t escalate.

"But once that punch is thrown, then there was some red in my eyes. I was going out there with intent. And you just sit back on it; you just wish you could have done more, because in my opinion, he (Odor) got out of there unscathed.”