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As Jacoby and Eddings yelled at each other at close range, Jays bench coach DeMarlo Hale thrust his arms between them and separated them. At that point, packets of scouting reports and other papers carried by Hale and Jacoby burst into the air and fluttered to the floor as the clash de-escalated.

Before handing down the suspension, MLB reviewed incident reports from the umpiring crew and from a Resident Security Agent (RSA), a security official who works for MLB. They also spoke to Jays officials. The Jays are appealing the suspension.

RSAs are active members of local police forces, hired by MLB to report after each game on a wide variety of security issues including ejections of players and fans. One of their primary responsibilities is accommodate the needs of umpires and to make sure they get off the field safely at the end of games.

The exit conditions at Fenway are far from ideal. Both the visiting team and the umpires use the same tunnel to reach their respective locker rooms. Normally, the umpires enter the tunnel first and head for the door at the top of the stairs ahead of the players, with security officers ahead of and behind them.

But sources say it was not uncommon for players, coaches and umpires to walk through the tunnel together, and that’s what happened last Wednesday after plate umpire Adrian Johnson called Russell Martin out on strikes to end the game.

Sources say Johnson was the first umpire up the stairs, with Eddings and Adam Hamari coming later and crew chief Bill Miller hanging back to argue with several Jays who were barking at him in the dugout. The result was a tunnel crammed with a quarrelsome mishmash of Blue Jays and the arbiters who had periodically annoyed them over the three-game series.