Baltimore Orioles: The KC Angle on the Machado-Ventura Brawl

Jun 7, 2016; Baltimore, MD, USA; Baltimore Orioles shortstop Manny Machado (bottom left) is restrained during a brawl against the Kansas City Royals at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Mandatory Credit: Evan Habeeb-USA TODAY Sports /

Baltimore Orioles fans will be understandably defensive of Manny Machado relative to the fight with Yordano Ventura, but how does it play in Kansas City?

Surprisingly, the KC press and blogs are not terribly defensive of their guy. They would say some critical things about Machado, noting that his fuse is far from the longest in baseball, but really it was nothing beyond what we as O’s fans would admit about our favorite 3B/SS.

Ventura has quite a resume already of brawling, especially for a guy who has now played a grand total of 74 MLB games. He instigated a situation with no less than Mike Trout early last year that brought both teams onto the field. Another 99 mph fastball was thrown at the A’s Brett Lawrie resulting in Ventura’s ejection. And then also last season, he was suspended seven games after a benches-clearing brawl with the Chicago White Sox.

When looking around at web sites and blogs, among KC fans’ comments were remarks that they were amazed he could hit his target when going after Machado, along with more amazement that he saved his best fastball of the day to hit an opponent. Beyond that, the pending suspension is welcome news, forcing him out of the rotation to see if someone else can be found that will actually get opponents out.

Here are some writers’ comments …

From our own network’s Kings of Kauffman blog:

Ventura was clearly aiming at Machado’s back. I don’t think there’s any doubt that the pitch was intentional. That’s completely unprofessional by Ventura.

Your team is trying to climb back into a game in the middle of a five-game losing streak. You’ve worked into a groove after a rough start and you need to keep your team in the game. Instead, you take a personal vendetta to the mound and fire up the other team.

From SB Nation’s Royals Report blog:

I mean, what can I even say about Yordano Ventura anymore? He’s been terrible on the mound for the entire year. The one thing that we could praise about him was that he seemed to have a newfound composure thus far in 2016, and all of that went to hell tonight. His pitch was embarrassing, and it’s obvious that his teammates are running out of patience with him. Prior to being escorted into the clubhouse, Eric Hosmer barked at him to “get off the field,” and he was later captured by cameras sitting in the corner of the dugout by himself. He’s brilliantly talented, but at the age of 25, he’s nowhere near as mature as he needs to be to reach his potential.

And from the newspaper in Kansas City, the KC Star: