White Sox, Royals Benches Clear After Yordano Ventura, Adam Eaton Exchange Words

The benches cleared during Thursday’s game between the Chicago White Sox and Kansas City Royals after Royals pitcher Yordano Ventura and White Sox outfielder Adam Eaton exchanged words.

Suspensions from that incident have been levied.

Continue for updates.

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MLB Suspends 6 From Brawl

Saturday, April 25

MLB Communications announced the suspensions from the brawl: 

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White Sox and Royals Involved in Bench-Clearing Brawl 

Thursday, April 23

Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times and Bleacher Report's Scott Miller provided more context for the developments:

Tom Fornelli and Dave Brown of CBS Sports were both perplexed by Ventura's reaction after Eaton hit the comebacker up the middle in the bottom of the seventh inning of the 2-2 game:

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I do believe the Royals have been in some kind of scrum/war or words/beanball war with every opponent they’ve played this year.

— Tom Fornelli (@TomFornelli) April 24, 2015"

The question now is what this means for both teams moving forward. While it is far too early in the season to deem any April games must-wins, neither squad wants to lose players to suspensions.

Scot Gregor of the Daily Herald noted that a number of players were ejected from Thursday’s game, including Kansas City's Edinson Volquez, Ventura and Lorenzo Cain, while Chicago starting pitchers Jeff Samardzija and Chris Sale exited as well:

After Sale's ejection, he tried to go to the Royals clubhouse looking for a fight, according to Andy McCullough of The Kansas City Star. White Sox manager Robin Ventura spoke to Gregor about Sale: "All emotions are running high at that point. Cooler heads prevailed."

Yordano Ventura is particularly noteworthy because he could be a budding star in the Kansas City pitching staff. He is only 23 years old and finished last season with a 14-10 record, a 3.20 ERA, a 1.30 WHIP and 159 strikeouts.

Any suspension would mean a significant blow to the Royals starting staff for its duration.