Alcides Escobar suffers knee sprain on aggressive slide from Brett Lawrie
The Oakland A’s and Kansas City Royals played some good old fashioned hardball in their first regular season matchup since last season’s wild AL wild-card game.
The intensity and energy inside Kauffman Stadium truly made it feel like another do-or-die matchup in October, rather than a regular Friday night in April, and one play in particular exemplified that intensity and energy.
Unfortunately, it also resulted in an injury to Kansas City Royals shortstop Alcides Escobar. According to reports, Escobar sustained a mild sprain and contusion to his left knee, which was the result of an aggressive slide by Oakland’s Brett Lawrie, who was attempting to break up a double play that had very little chance of happening regardless of his actions.
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Looking back at the entire play, it was actually a bit unusual right from the beginning. It happened in the seventh inning when Josh Reddick hit a hard grounder back to the mound that deflected off the foot of Royals reliever Kelvin Herrera and bounced to third baseman Mike Moustakas. With the Royals pinching up the middle on defense, Moustakas was forced to awkwardly flip the ball to the shortstop Escobar, who was forced to catch that ball from a different angle than he’s accustomed to.
At almost the same time the ball and Escobar arrived to second base, Lawrie arrived too with a late, aggressive slide and his cleats in the air. The slide caught Escobar right on the left knee and spun him around in his tracks.
By the way, Lawrie was called out on the field. The call was upheld by replay, although it appeared he may have been safe.
Even though they benefited, the result of the play mattered little to the Royals at that point. They were mostly concerned about Escobar’s health, which we’ve since learned will be a day-to-day evaluation. In protest, the benches briefly emptied, but the confrontation did not escalate on Friday night. Perhaps the rest of the weekend series will be a different story, but cooler heads seemed to prevail following the game.
“It was a hard slide, but I don’t think Lawrie anticipated a Moose throw on the play, and when he saw the throw, he kind of shuffled late [into Escobar],” is how Royals’ manager Ned Yost described the play.
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Said Lawrie, “I know [Escobar]. He was in the Brewers’ organization when I was, a couple levels ahead of me. That’s a guy I always say, ‘What’s up?’ to. When we’re out there, we always [talk] and wish each other the best of luck. No one’s trying to hurt anybody. That’s a situation in the sixth or seventh inning, in a tight ballgame, no one’s trying to hurt anybody there. I’m just trying to break up a double play.”
Lawrie also offered an explanation to his followers on Twitter following the game.
No apologies there, but none seem to be required following what was undoubtedly the most intensely fought game during this young season.
The Royals went on to win the game, 6-4, following RBIs from Paulo Orlando and Omar Infante and three innings of near spotless relief from Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis and Greg Holland.
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813
