Marlins slugger Giancarlo Stanton beaned in the face, prompting bench-clearing brawl

In the top of the fifth inning of Thursday night's game between the Miami Marlins and Milwaukee Brewers, Brewers pitcher Mike Fiers threw a couple of bad pitches. The first, an 88 mph fastball, hit Marlins All-Star outfielder Giancarlo Stanton in the face, right below the left eye. After lying on the ground for about 7 minutes, Stanton was carted off the field with lacerations on his cheek, multiple facial fractures, and dental damage.

Asked if Stanton — a top hitter in the National League, with 27 home runs and 105 RBIs — would return this season, Marlins manager Mike Redmond replied, "It does not look good."

But it wasn't beaning Stanton that cleared the Marlins bench — that was when Fiers hit Reed Johnson, called up to finish Stanton's at-bat, on the hand, with two strikes. The umpires ruled it a swing, ending the inning, and the Marlins weren't pleased. Nobody landed any swings, but Redmond and Miami's Casey McGehee were ejected from the game for getting in the umpires' faces. "He just knocked out our best player, hit him in the mouth, and then you just hit another guy in the hand," Redmond said after the game. "What are we supposed to do?"

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Things only got worse for the Marlins — both acting manager Rob Leary and pitcher Anthony DeSclafini were ejected in the sixth — as you'll see in the lowlights reel below. They lost not only their star hitter, but also the game, 4-2. --Peter Weber