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Blue Jays livid after Garcia ejected for hitting Yanks' Donaldson in tie game

Jim McIsaac / Getty Images Sport / Getty

The Toronto Blue Jays were left fuming after reliever Yimi Garcia was ejected for hitting New York Yankees third baseman Josh Donaldson in the sixth inning of Tuesday's game at Yankee Stadium.

After allowing a game-tying three-run homer to Giancarlo Stanton, Garcia got one strike on Donaldson before hitting him with the second pitch of the at-bat. After the umpires conferred, they tossed Garcia without issuing a warning.

Garcia, manager Charlie Montoyo, and pitching coach Pete Walker vehemently protested the decision, and the right-hander had to be restrained from umpires before finally leaving the field. Walker was also ejected during the incident. Montoyo was ejected in the top of the seventh after taking exception to the Yankees going up and in on Bo Bichette.

"It's just the situation, man. We don't want to put anybody on base," Montoyo said, according to Sportsnet's Arash Madani. "They just came back. They're playing good baseball, that team. We don't want to hit anybody."

Montoyo added that umpires said they ejected Garcia because they believed it was intentional and related to an earlier incident between Donaldson and Blue Jays catcher Tyler Heineman.

"Earlier in the game, there were some words exchanged by Donaldson and Toronto's catcher, so that definitely played into it," crew chief Alfonso Marquez said following the contest, according to Shi Davidi of Sportsnet. "There were pretty strong words. Then you have a game-tying home run ... It had nothing to do with (Donaldson's) reaction. It had everything to do with the game situations that led up to that specific incident."

Heineman confirmed Wednesday he exchanged words with Donaldson but said Garcia wasn't aware of what was said.

"Some words were exchanged in the heat of the moment," Heineman said, according to the Toronto Sun's Rob Longley. "I thought once it was over, it was over. Yimi didn't know a word about that. He was in the bullpen."

Donaldson also didn't believe the plunking had any intent behind it.

"In my heart of hearts, I don't think it was (intentional)," the former MVP said, according to Keegan Matheson of MLB.com. "But I mean, it didn't look good on television, that's for sure."

The Yankees went on to win the game 6-5.

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