Two bench-clearing brawls in the Cubs 9-2 loss to Nationals

The Cubs lost 9-2 to the Washington Nationals in a bench-clearing game tonight at Nationals Park.  The incidents started when the Nationals' third base coach Bo Porter walked over to the Cubs' dugout in the fifth inning and started screaming at Cubs bench coach Jamie Quirk.  This resulted in both benches being emptied, although there was no physical contact at this point.  Quirk was ejected but Porter was not.

Then in the sixth inning, an inside pitch thrown by Manny Corpas to Bryce Harper ignited another bench-clearing episode and resulted in Steve Clevenger and Corpas being ejected.

Michael Gonzalez was the only Nationals player ejected tonight, which doesn't seem fair.  The Cubs ended up being swept in the four-game series and are now on pace to lose 102 games this season. (yikes!)

The Cubs-Nationals game turned into a bench-clearing brawl on Thursday night (photo from Chicago Tribune)

Justin Germano started for the Cubs and lasted only four innings as he allowed six runs on seven hits while walking two batters and striking out two. 

Even though the Cubs have had such a high turnaround rate for players and are in a "building season," it sill doesn't make it any easier for fans or players to stomach. 

Tomorrow the Cubs will start a three-game series against the third place NL Central Pirates in Pittsburgh at 6:05pm CT.  Travis Wood will start for the Cubs and try to earn his fifth win of the season.  Let's hope there are no ejections or fights in Pittsburgh (and some Cubs wins!)