It all started Friday night at second base. There was a ground ball to third baseman Mike Moustakas and he flipped it to second for the out. Brett Lawrie came in hard and took out Royals SS Alcides Escobar. After watching the replay, Lawrie went in hard, really hard and he had his spikes up, it wasnt a good slide. Even though I feel that it was a bad slide, I'm a little hesitant to call it dirty. Calling a play or player dirty to me is kind of a slippery slope. No doubt about it Lawrie showed poor technique on his slide, but I'm not convinced that it was done on purpose or that he had any malicious intent to injure Escobar, if he did then it would constitute a dirty play to me. Lawrie seemed apologetic after the slide, realizing that he had hurt Escobar. Needless to say Kansas City was none to pleased with the slide and it set into motion a chain of events that hung over the entire weekend series.It was to no one's surprise that the very next day Kansas City would retaliate. Even Lawrie himself had to expect to be hit at some point, it's part of the game whether you like it or not. So Oakland was ahead 5-0 in the fourth inning and Yordano Ventura felt this was as good a time as any to retaliate, oh and Ventura can hit triple digits on the radar gun. The most interesting part of this situation to me was the reactions after Ventura hit Lawrie. Ventura seemed anxious for a fight, after he hit Lawrie he walked right up to Lawrie almost begging him to make a move so he could start a brawl, I found that odd. It seemed like Ventura felt like he had to teach Lawrie a lesson for what he did, it was extremely childish. Lawrie however kept his composure stared straight ahead and calmly walked to first base. So most people would logically think it's over right? wrong.
The next night another Royals pitcher who flirts with triple digits on the radar gun felt Lawrie hadn't paid enough for his sins. Kelvin Herrera decided to throw a 100 MPH fastball behind Bret Lawrie causing an immediate ejection. As Herrera was walking off the field he pointed to his head, indicating that's where the next pitch to Lawrie would be. This is taking it a little too far. Throwing a baseball that fast is dangerous if it's in the strike zone but trying to hit someone in the head, it's completely inexcusable. Herrera should be suspended for those actions. Royals players wanted to respond to their teammate getting injured and I understand that, but to me they lost focus and decided to head hunt Brett Lawrie. There is no room in baseball for those type of actions. Lawrie was just playing the game, and we could argue if the slide was dirty or not but it was still done in the flow of the game. Kansas City pitchers made it a point to throw at Lawrie not once but twice with two of the hardest throwers in Major League Baseball. The Royals in my opinion should be ashamed of how they acted this weekend and I'd be shocked if some suspensions weren't handed out because of this display.
These two teams don't meet again until June, however I seriously doubt either will forget this weekend. It will make their next series one of the most anticipated matches but for all the wrong reasons. Oh and if anyone cares Kansas City took 2 out of 3 in this series.
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