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The Blue Jays won three out of the four games against the Royals this weekend behind yet another solid performance from R.A. Dickey. But what we will remember from this game are the inside pitches and hit batsmen that ended with a bench- and bullpen-clearing meeting on the field and of course, the post-game comments that included a possible threat against Jose Bautista.
The conference was initiated by Aaron Sanchez hitting Alcedes Escobar in the knees but that was just the final straw. Royals starter Edinson Volquez hit Josh Donaldson in the first inning, then brushed him back another time before reliever Ryan Madson came in and threw a pitch up and under Donaldson's chin in the seventh inning immediately after he hit Troy Tulowitzki in the forearm area. John Gibbons ran out to home plate umpire Jim Wolf and got ejected to save his understandably angry star third baseman from being tossed by Wolf.
I say "understandably angry" assuming most readers reading this are reasonable human beings ,but not every one is one. For example, Volquez was quite ticked off at Donaldson for acting upset and mocked him from the dugout with this gesture:
This was literally seconds before Jose Bautista slammed a ground-rule double over the head of Lorenzo Cain. The chirping continued after the game, with these quotes from Volquez as reported by Andy McCullough of the Kansas City Star.
"He’s a little baby," Volquez said. "He was crying like a baby."
"He got mad at everybody like he’s Barry Bonds," Volquez said. "He’s not Barry Bonds. He’s got three years in the league. We’ve been around longer than he has."
Naturally, Donaldson responded by calling Volquez "pretty good hittin'," which is not exactly good English but we understand what he meant.
Post-postgame comments continued on social media. First by Jose Bautista, who said that he had lost a lot of respect for his All-Star Game manager Ned Yost, who praised Jim Wolf for "understanding the game" and knowing which pitches were thrown intentionally (Sanchez's) and which were not (Volquez's and Madson's). Even though Volquez's own comments indicated that the first inning pitch was meant to land on Donaldson's body because Donaldson had "pimped" his home runs.
Just heard #NedYost comments about the game. Lost a lot of respect for that man today.
— Jose Bautista (@JoeyBats19) August 2, 2015
Just how much respect did Bautista have for Ned Yost anyway?
Late Sunday night, when it looked like the whole thing was over, Royals starter Yordano Ventura sent three tweets at Bautista, which were quickly deleted. But of course, someone had managed to screencap them:
@arturomarcano @bvenezolano Suficiente para Suspenderlo? Dicen que por la Boca Muere el Pez, Esta vez es x los dedos! pic.twitter.com/qs38eWc4TQ
— Jose Mora (@xtremesite) August 3, 2015
Arturo Marcano, ESPN Deportes' Toronto correspondant, said that Ventura's tweets were written in "really bad Spanish" and that he will get his revenge against Bautista eventually. Marcano attempts further translation:
"You are nothing, next time I see you do it to me you will see what I can do...the big leagues don't close this year" something like that
— Arturo J. Marcano G. (@arturomarcano) August 3, 2015
Marcano was unhappy that Ventura did this, saying that it is no way to treat a fellow countryman who has done much for Dominican baseball.
Update: Here's a translation from reader Ilello Loves Ace:
(Tweet 1) what you have to is play how it is and stop sending "sena" ('beef'), that now with me you have some, because you cool and don't come from nothing
(Tweet 2)you got saved because of things that come with life but the major leagues don't get cancelled this year (as in mlb hasnt finished this year) keep saying everything you want
(Tweet 3) later we will see each other so you do it to me so you can see that with me i don't care about anyone and i respected you but you are nobody for me now
Here is another translation via Royals Review (I don't know how reliable it is):
Translation of Yordano tweets roughly pic.twitter.com/U3SozziwKg
— We Dem Roys (@DemRoys) August 3, 2015
Those three translations look.... a bit different, so what did Ventura say to Bautista? Do we have any Spanish readers who can tell us in the comments? This one, another from Royals Review, is pretty reliable though:
Think we got an accurate translation of Yordano's tweets here. pic.twitter.com/rl1XqFQRXU
— Royals Review (@royalsreview) August 3, 2015
We'll see what the fallout would be tomorrow. I doubt any of the players would get suspended for their chirping, unless Major League Baseball rules that Volquez's comments about Donaldson's "pimping" is sufficient to show intent to hit him, but I doubt that'll happen.
The three people who might get into trouble stemming from this incident are, interestingly, Blue Jays. First, John Gibbons came out onto the field from the clubhouse despite being ejected. It looked like he came out to make peace rather than fight so maybe he'll just get a suspension and a small fine.
Gibbons and Infante were the calm in the eye of that storm. pic.twitter.com/cFEL2WXNM9
— Ian Hunter (@BlueJayHunter) August 2, 2015
Aaron Sanchez, who sparked the bench-clearing, might get dinged for a handful of thousands and a couple of games for intentionally hitting Escobar.
Devon Travis, who is currently on the disabled list, was also part of the throng of players who joined the fray despite baseball rule #3.17 having an official comment that says players on the DL are not allowed to enter the field during a game for any reason.
This was a fun series with some really damn good baseball capped with a little drama at the end. I hope that these two teams haven't faced each other for the last time this season.