KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Royals and Chicago White Sox each lost Saturday without playing a game.
Four members of the Royals and three from the White Sox were punished for their roles in a series-opening brawl in Chicago, and six of the players drew suspensions. Major League Baseball placed the blame for the fighting squarely on both teams.
Royals pitcher Yordano Ventura was handed a seven-game suspension, fellow starter Edinson Volquez was given five games, and outfielder Lorenzo Cain and reliever Kelvin Herrera received two games apiece. White Sox pitchers Chris Sale and Jeff Samardzija were suspended five games each, while catcher Tyler Flowers escaped suspension but joined the others in receiving an undisclosed fine.
All the players who received suspensions are appealing, which means they will be able to play in Sunday’s series finale. The game scheduled for Saturday was rained out.
“Everybody had some elements of their behavior over the course of that incident on both sides that they wish they handled differently,” White Sox general manager Rick Hahn said during a conference call Saturday. “Respect the fact that our players stood up and took responsibility for their actions and expressed remorse over those things they wish had been handled better.
“It is something that happens from time to time,” Hahn added. “It’s part of the game.”
It’s a costly part of the game, though. Along with the suspensions, Hahn said reliever Matt Albers fractured a finger on his throwing hand in the melee and will go on the disabled list.
Meanwhile, Herrera already is awaiting an appeal on a five-game suspension that was handed down after he threw a pitch behind Oakland A’s third baseman Brett Lawrie during a series last weekend. Ventura was fined for hitting Lawrie with a 99-mph fastball during the same series.
“We understand that Major League Baseball has to do what they think is fair in situations like this,” Royals manager Ned Yost said in a team statement. “Now, we just have to wait for the appeals process to play out.”
Tensions between the Royals and White Sox had been building since the opening series of the season, when the teams combined to hit six batters. Two more were plunked early Thursday night when Ventura hit Jose Abreu in the fourth inning and Sale hit Mike Moustakas in the fifth.
The simmering anger finally boiled over in the seventh, when Ventura snagged a grounder from Chicago outfielder Adam Eaton and the two exchanged words before Eaton was thrown out at first. Eaton had to be restrained from Ventura, who was ejected from his second consecutive start.
“It was a messy situation,” Ventura said through a translator.
Players from both dugouts and bullpens then ran onto the field. Volquez whiffed throwing a haymaker, and several other players threw punches in a fight that lasted several minutes.
“There are real negative repercussions of this,” Hahn said.
Thumbnail photo via Matt Marton/USA TODAY Sports Images
