Benches clear in Twins-Indians after Lindor, Romo exchange words

The Cleveland Indians and Minnesota Twins got testy with each other Friday after a verbal exchange between Francisco Lindor and Sergio Romo prompted the benches to clear.

After Romo got Lindor to pop out to end the top of the eighth inning, the Indians shortstop flashed a smile toward the Twins reliever. The two then argued with each other and had to be separated.

(Source: MLB.com)

No punches appeared to be thrown during the altercation between the two division rivals, who are in a tight race for first place in the AL Central.

"This is a situation that's been brewing for a while," said fill-in Indians manager Sandy Alomar Jr., according to MLB.com's Manny Randhawa. "I mean, Romo likes to dish it. Our guys dish it back. The whole thing about this situation - Romo's been animated all his career and he's been in the National League. We don't know much about him. That's all it is.

"If he's gonna dish it, we dish it back and you have to take it. That's the bottom line. Little words there, but nothing to the end of it."

Twins manager Rocco Baldelli wasn't pleased with his players' actions and admitted the confrontation between Lindor and Romo stemmed from a personality clash between the pair.

"I think it's basically to the point where it's just a couple of players who continually interact with each other when they probably shouldn't. And I think it would probably be better if they didn't," he said.

"And I think a lot of the interaction is, some of it's subtle, some of it's not so subtle. I think if we just all went out there and played the game and tried to ignore what was going on on the other side, we'd be in better shape."

The Twins and Indians will face each other again Saturday and Sunday in their final two regular-season meetings of the campaign.