During the benches-clearing ruckus, Royals' Ian Kennedy got a hug from an old friend

The Royals-White Sox game didn't quite follow the Elton John song, but things got tense.

John sang "Saturday night's alright for fighting," and while there were no punches thrown, the benches cleared during the Royals' 5-2 win over the White Sox on Saturday night at Kauffman Stadium.

The incident came in the second game of a doubleheader, when Royals catcher Salvador Perez was none too happy with White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson's reaction after hitting a home run to open the contest.

When Perez reached second base in the bottom of the frame, he and Anderson talked about it, things got a bit heated, and both benches cleared.

When White Sox pitcher James Shields got to the fray, he did something unusual — he hugged Royals pitcher Ian Kennedy.

Take a look at this video from WIBW's Jonathan Deutsch:

Shields and Kennedy were Padres teammates in 2015, so it's nice to see that they remain close.

According to Josh Vernier of 610 Radio, Shields also embraced Royals third baseman Mike Moustakas:

In case you missed the entire fracas, here it is:

This story was originally published April 29, 2018 at 8:15 AM with the headline "During the benches-clearing ruckus, Royals' Ian Kennedy got a hug from an old friend."