Yankees' Albert Abreu sparks Randy Arozarena benches-clearing incident with late HBP

Tampa Bay Rays manager Kevin Cash has never had a phenomenal grasp on intentionality, and that appears to have carried over to the rest of his roster.

In the eighth inning of a meaningless game, struggling reliever Albert Abreu continued to make it more difficult for the Yankees to capture their first non-Royals series win since late June by drilling the leadoff man, Randy Arozarena, after some Gleyber Torres defense and Wandy Peralta combined to blow a mid-game lead.

Arozarena did not take the 3-1 fastball in the midsection kindly, even though Abreu immediately reacted by throwing his head to the sky. He was likely either disgusted with himself for the poor pitch, or pre-fed up with Arozarena taking the plunking too seriously and predictably making something out of nothing.

The benches quickly cleared for a spirited discussion, and Arozarena had to be restrained.

Yankees drill Randy Arozarena, who runs all over them and sparks two benches-clearing incidents

You're not going to believe this, but once things calmed down, the fiery Arozarena decided to perk things back up.

During the very next at-bat, he sprinted for third, sliding in safely and goading on the haters to come get him.

They did.

Considering the only thing Yankees fans currently want out of the rest of this season/game is for it all to end, it makes perfect sense that the whole shebang simply refuses to wrap itself up.

Getting drilled in the ribs by a high-velocity fastball with poor location (the title of Albert Abreu's autobiography) is literally never fun, but the Rays clearly just wanted to feel something here as this poor excuse for a Yankees roster attempts to play out the string.

Unfortunately for Cash and the eternally aggrieved Rays, Abreu isn't one of the Yankees left on the roster whose progression matters, so it's quite likely Arozarena won't get another shot at AL East revenge next year.