Bad blood between Royals and Chicago's Samardzija boils over in 13-inning affair
CHICAGO -- Lorenzo Cain emerged with his jersey over his head. Jeff Samardzija's hair flopped in front of his face. Adam Eaton failed to get to first. Mike Jirschele bounced off the turf.
Ned Yost's hat was covered in dirt. Kelvin Herrera's jacket came unbuttoned. Chris Sale's jersey came untucked. Tyler Flowers' catcher's gear looked like protective armor. Edinson Volquez launched a misdirected haymaker.
Chicago's Emilio Bonifacio chatted with Kansas City's Yordano Ventura. Kansas City's Yost talked to Chicago's Sale.
In the seventh inning of Thursday's 13-inning, 3-2 Kansas City win over Chicago, the emotions and animosity between the Royals and White Sox manifested themselves -- resulting in an all-out brawl at first base. Samardzija and Sale were ejected, as were Ventura, Cain and Volquez.
And once again, Ventura -- ejected just five days earlier -- was at the center of the confrontation.
With two outs and no on, he was in in the midst of polishing off a sparkling seven-inning, two-run performance when Adam Eaton bounced a rocket back to the mound. Ventura gloved the ball, walked toward first and threw the ball to first.
Television cameras appeared to show Ventura saying an expletive to Eaton halfway up the line. Ventura said Eaton had yelled something to him.
"It's a messy situation," Ventura said through translator Jeremy Guthrie. "He (Ventura) got the groundball. He was unable to control his emotions in that play and it turned out ugly. ... He wishes it wouldn't happen like that. He feels like if there wasn't the yelling between the two parties, that it likely would have resulted much more favorably and not like it did."
The play was done, but the games had not yet begun.
Eaton did not reach first base before he turned back to Ventura and barked back at the 23-year-old. Eric Hosmer stepped in front of Eaton and Melky Cabrera intercepted Ventura. But the benches flooded the field and the bullpens sprinted in from beyond the outfield.
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The White Sox's black jerseys and the Royals' gray ones meshed at first base, the memories of a heated series to begin the season uncovering themselves as Samardzija rushed at Cain on the outskirts of the huddle.
Samardzija did so once. He did so twice, running over Jirschele, the Royals' third base coach, in the process.
"Me, I'm not a big fan," Cain said of Samardzija.
The two have history this season, with Samardzija plunking Cain on his arm in the fifth inning of the season's first game. The hit by pitch came immediately after Moustakas blasted a solo shot off Samardzija, and Cain later said the pitch was on purpose.
"I guess it was a little built-up anger," Cain said. "It is what it is."
Perhaps not all the anger was bubbling before the series, though. Some of it may have been freshly applied in the previous half-inning.
In the top of the seventh inning, with runners at first and second and one out, Christian Colon lined out to Alexei Ramirez, who doubled off Alex Gordon to finish the inning. But then Colon heard a voice from the White Sox dugout.
"And I hear Samardzija over there in the dugout, 'Get to the dugout, get back in there,'" Colon said. "So I yell back. 'What your deal, bro? You're not even in the game.' No one is saying anything. No one's trying to fight nobody. ... He's just in the dugout chirping. I thought we were done with all that."
According to Colon, this is nothing new for Samardzija.
"He's just in there running his mouth," Colon said. "I don't know about what.
"This is Oakland A's stuff, when he was in the wild-card game, yelling at Ventura on the mound. I don't get it."
Cain, meanwhile, is not worried about possible further discipline from the league.
"I don't see why I should get disciplined. They came after me, right?" Cain said.
Also on Thursday, Jose Abreu was hit by a Ventura pitch on the elbow in the fourth inning. And Mike Moustakas was hit on the shoulder and chin in the fifth. When Sale hit Moustakas, the umpires issued warnings to both benches, which surprised Yost because he felt neither pitch was intentional.
You can follow Matthew DeFranks on Twitter at @MDeFranks or email him at matthew.defranks@gmail.com.
