Five players ejected after Royals, White Sox brawl at U.S. Cellular Field
The Kansas City Royals and Chicago White Sox ended up in a benches-clearing brawl Thursday night at U.S. Cellular Field.
Tempers flared when Yordano Ventura fielded a ground ball from Adam Eaton in the bottom of the seventh inning and appeared to mouth profanities at him as Eaton jogged down the first base line.
Ventura threw the ball to first base and Eaton was called out, but the two players approached each other after the call was made and both benches soon cleared.
Later on in the ensuing scrum, Lorenzo Cain and Jeff Samardzija fought. Both players were ejected, as were Ventura, the Royals' Edinson Volquez and White Sox pitcher Chris Sale, who was repeatedly restrained by both Royals staff members and his own teammates.
Ventura was fined Tuesday by Major League Baseball for his actions in the Royals' conflict last weekend with Brett Lawrie and the Oakland Athletics.
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The Athletics and Royals were involved in a benches-clearing altercation of their own on April 17 after Oakland's Brett Lawrie slid hard into Royals second baseman Alcides Escobar, which led to several plunkings and two more bench-clearings in the final two games of the weekend series.
On Thursday, the Royals went on to beat the White Sox 3-2 in 13 innings thanks to first baseman Eric Hosmer's game-winning double. The two teams are set to play the next three days as part of a four-game series.
Check out the action from the brawl below.
- Will Green
