Toronto Blue Jays’ Joaquin Benoit tears calf muscle

Toronto reliever Joaquin Benoit tore his left calf muscle when charging onto the field during a dust-up against the New York Yankees  and will be sidelined 2-to-3 weeks.

Blue Jays second baseman Devon Travis hurt his surgically repaired left shoulder in the same inciden.  Benoit, 39, has been outstanding since joining the Blue Jays in a late-July trade that sent Drew Storen to the Seattle Mariners.In 25 appearances for Toronto, Benoit is 2-0 with a 0.38 ERA (one run in 23 2/3 innings). Travis, 25, is batting .299 with a .331 on-base percentage, a .447 slugging percentage, 10 homers and 49 RBIs in 97 games.

The benches emptied twice in the last game in the second inning when Toronto’s J.A. Happ hit New York’s with a pitch that the Blue Jays believed was retaliation for the Yankees’ Luis Severino plunking Josh Donaldson an inning earlier, and in the bottom of the second when Severino drilled Justin Smoak with a pitch.

Severino was ejected along with Yankees manager Joe Giradi, pitching coach Larry Rothschild and bench coach Rob Thomson. The umpires did not eject anyone from the Blue Jays.