The bad blood between the Oakland Athletics and Kansas City Royals continues.
Benches cleared for the third straight game in the teams' three-game weekend series Sunday, with a total of five Royals being ejected.
Despite the ejections, the Royals still managed to win, 4-2, to take the rubber match of the series.
Tempers especially flared Sunday, when Royals reliever Kelvin Herrera brushed Athletics third baseman Brett Lawrie back with a 100 mph fastball shoulder-high in the eighth inning.
Although Herrera was immediately ejected for throwing the pitch, the reliever pointed to his head, while walking off the diamond and that infuriated Lawrie into this heated reaction following the game, essentially promising payback and revenge.
Athletics closer Sean Doolittle didn't hold back his feelings about the dirty pitch, either, with these tweets aimed at Herrera after the game.
Bush league
— Sean Doolittle (@whatwouldDOOdo) April 19, 2015
Don't point at your head after you throw at someone that's hot garbage — Sean Doolittle (@whatwouldDOOdo) April 19, 2015
Herrera maintains that his pointing-to-the-head gesture was meant to say "think about it."
"I don't mean to hurt anybody," Herrera told the media, as reported by ESPN. "I was just trying to throw inside, but just a bad grip on that fastball. It started raining pretty good. And they just tossed me out of the game."
The bad blood in this series began when Lawrie slid hard and late into Royals shortstop Alcides Escobar during the series opener on Friday night. That prompted both teams' benches to empty onto the field. Kansas City took the opener, 6-4.
The next day, Saturday, saw Royals starter Yordano Ventura hitting Lawrie with a retaliatory pitch, leading to the right-hander's ejection and benches clearing once again. The Athletics wound up winning, 5-0.
When Sunday rolled around, Royals manager Ned Yost was ejected in the first inning after Kansas City outfielder Lorenzo Cain was nailed by a pitch from Athletics starter Scott Kazmir, setting the tone for yet another nasty game. Four more Royals, including Herrera, were tossed from that game.
Last season, don't forget that the Royals scored a hard-fought, 12-inning 9-8 victory over the Athletics in their 2014 wild-card game in a thriller that took 4 hours and 45 minutes. Kansas City used the victory to spark its run all the way to the World Series, before falling to the San Francisco Giants.
The As and Royals will have to wait till the last weekend in June to renew their rivalry. Security better be on deck. You know the A's retaliation is coming.
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