Yankees starter C.C. Sabathia is one helluva loyal player to his teammates.

So much so that he decided to stick up for his fellow Yankees instead of pitching two more innings that could've padded his pockets. During Thursday's game against the Rays, tensions flared between the two AL East combatants and Sabathia was having none of it.

In the top of the 6th inning, Rays pitcher Andrew Kitteridge nearly plunked Austin Romine in the head, after Sabathia had beaned Jake Bauers in the inning before. The following inning, Yankees manager Aaron Boone walked out the 6-foot-6, 300-pound eighteen-year veteran to the mound with the Yankees sporting an 11-0 lead.

But, Sabathia had to get the final shot in, as then hit Rays catcher Jesus Sucre with an up-and-in fastball on his hand. With a two-hitter going, Sabathia was ejected for the fifth time in his career. 

That ejection resulted in Sabathia missing out on a $500,000 signing bonus. A clause in his contract stated that if the 38-year-old reached 155 innings pitched, he would've earned the bonus, but chose to send a statement to the Rays instead. At the time of the ejection, Sabathia sat at 153 total innings, meaning he chose to forfeit the incentive money to send a statement to the Rays.

The Yankees signed Sabathia to a one-year, $10-million contract at the start of the season, and although he's made a boatload of money over his career, $500,000 is still a substantial amount of money to give up. 
 
"He does stuff for his teammates," Yankees slugger Aaron Judge told reporters post-game.
 
"That's how he's been his whole career. He does stuff for his teammates, and he looks out for everybody. He's always going to look out for guys in this room, and that's what he did tonight."

Anything for the teammates.

 (h/t ESPN)