After a brawl between the Kansas City Royals and Chicago White Sox resulted in five ejections during Thursday night's American League Central clash, Major League Baseball announced Saturday that it has suspended six players.
According to MLB Communications on Twitter, Royals pitchers Yordano Ventura, Edinson Volquez and Kelvin Herrera along with outfielder Lorenzo Cain were disciplined as well as White Sox pitchers Chris Sale and Jeff Samardzija. A seventh player, Chicago catcher Tyler Flowers, received an undisclosed fine.
As seen in this video, courtesy of MLB, both dugouts emptied when Ventura took exception to White Sox outfielder Adam Eaton hitting the ball at him:
After the incident, Eaton chalked it up to two hungry teams temporarily losing their cool, per MLB.com's Scott Merkin:
Again, when you are good and you go out there and compete, people want to be where you are. What happened, two competitive teams scratching for the same goal. Sometimes it gets the best of you. Ventura is a heck of a competitor. I respect the heck out of him and everyone behind him. I'm a competitor, as well. Sometimes boys will be boys and I think that was a situation where we had some excitement.
Ventura, Volquez, Sale and Samardzija all figure to miss one start apiece, while the Royals will be without their best hitter in Cain and one of their best bullpen arms in Herrera for two games each. Sale and Ventura were the starting pitchers in Thursday's scrap, with Ventura's ejection being his second in two appearances.
The Royals are atop the American League with a record of 12-4, but maintaining that pace will be difficult without four key contributors. Chicago, on the other hand, will have to get by without its top two starters as it works its way back from a 6-9 start.
Although it is early in the season, it was quite clear Thursday there is already a great deal of bad blood between the division rivals.
MLB acted swiftly in hopes of diffusing the situation and preventing similar incidents in the future, but with the Royals and White Sox set to meet several more times this season, a spillover effect is certainly possible.
Follow @MikeChiari on Twitter.
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