You can beat fun at the old ball park by beating up each other.
Things started in the bottom of the seventh inning of Thursday night's White Sox-Royals contest. With two outs, White Sox outfielder Adam Eaton hit a comebacker to Royals pitcher Yordano Ventura. As Eaton was running to first, Ventura appeared to yell a not so friendly phrase at him. Ventura, yelled back at Eaton running down the line, prior to throwing the ball to first.
The first base umpire immediately got in front of Eaton, while the home plate ump came out in front of Ventura.
At that moment, both benches cleared. There was a lot of pushing and shoving, but no punches were thrown. As these tea kettle situations usually lose steam quickly, everyone had stopped their sumo stances and were just about ready to go back to their dugouts.
But then new White Sox pitcher Jeff Samardzija went after Royals outfielder Lorenzo Cain, causing a scrum on the field. As Samardzija charged at Cain, another Royals player, (another ex-NL Central rival, the later ejected) Edinson Volquez, took a swing at Samardzija.
Samardzija was eventually separated from the fray. He was held back by Geovany Soto, his teammate with both the Cubs and Athletics. After the game, Cain told reporters Samardzija had been chirping at him during the game - - - probably a hold over from Oakland's post game series. Earlier in the year, Samardzija hit Cain with a pitch that Cain thought was intentional (a carry over from last season).
Once the fight was over, the umpires gathered to figure out which players needed to be ejected from the contest. For the White Sox, that wound up being Samardzija and starting pitcher Chris Sale. Sale was still in the game at that point, though had thrown 99 pitches, so it was unclear whether he would have returned for the next inning.
The Royals lost Ventura, Cain and pitcher Volquez for the rest of the contest. For Ventura, this is the second straight game in which he has been ejected. Ventura was ejected in his last start against Oakland after hitting Brett Lawrie on the elbow with a pitch. This was an alleged retaliation for a hard slide Lawrie made in breaking up a double play. But that entire Royals-A’s series was mired with hit batters and scrums.
Given his recent history, it would be surprising if Ventura escapes this one without missing some time. Samardzija is also probably in line for a suspension. It's unclear whether Sale or Cain will be punished once Major League Baseball is able to review the entire brawl. Also, if Volquez was the player who threw the punch at Samardzija, it's likely he'll miss a start or two.
Royals first baseman Eric Hosmer said the Royals might be playing with too much emotion at the moment, and stressed that fights are never a great way to handle this type of situation.
The Royals are playing with a chip on their shoulder despite last season’s success. Some people thought the Royals just lucked out after decades of small market futility. But a very quick start to 10 wins gave the Royals some swagger which has turned into a macho Bad Boy Mentality.
It is the manager’s job to keep his team’s emotions in check, and channeled to productive aspects of the game. Losing three players in a fight is not a productive use of talent.
The new commissioner has a big decision on his hands. He will need to punish Ventura for his repeat behavior. It is a question whether he can corral the tempers to avoid baseball becoming a poor man’s hockey game.
