Benches clear after Yordano Ventura picks a fight with Mike Trout
These Royals are certainly feisty this season.
Less than a week after getting into it with Jeff Samardzija and the Chicago White Sox, the benches and bullpens cleared Sunday during Kansas City’s game against the Angels.
It all happened in the bottom of the sixth and started when Royals starter Yordano Ventura went high and inside on Angels All-Star Mike Trout with a 96 mph fastball. The 2014 AL MVP recovered quickly and lined the next pitch he saw right past Ventura for a single.
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The back-and-forth was far from over though. As Trout made his way over to first base, Ventura stared him down, escalating the apparent conflict.
The next Angels hitter, Albert Pujols, laced a double to center and an error by Lorenzo Cain allowed Trout to score all the way from first. That’s when the fireworks really started to fly.
After Trout slid into home, he got up and and yelled a few words of encouragement to his teammates. Ventura took exception with Trout’s enthusiasm and they went face-to-face and had a short but heated exchange. It didn’t take long for the two to be surrounded by all their teammates and order was soon restored before the rift got physical.
According to the Associated Press, the entire episode left Trout a little confused.
”I was just playing my game,” Trout said. ”I just got a base hit, I got to first base and he was staring at me. I didn’t think I did anything wrong – and then he got in my face. I’m not trying to get in any fights or anything, and I’m just trying to play baseball.”
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From Royals manager Ned Yost’s vantage point, Ventura was just blowing off some steam:
”He pitches with a lot of emotion. He’s a real intense competitor, and he got fired up there,” Yost said.
Ventura’s comments after the game echoed his manager’s feelings, saying he’s a competitor and that kind of thing happens in baseball.
On top of being a bit combative, these Royals are pretty good too. Kansas City improved to 6-0 following Sunday’s 9-2 win over Anaheim, making them and their AL Central rival Detroit MLB’s only remaining undefeated teams through the season’s opening week.
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Israel Fehr is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter. Follow @israelfehr
