Suspensions Handed Down in Rangers-Angels Brawl
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by user ASwaff
There was a bench-clearing brawl in Arlington last night, resulting from some late-inning tensions that have been growing all season. Night before last, Vicente Padilla and Buck Showalter were thrown out of the game when Padilla hit Juan Rivera in the fourth inning. It was his second hit batsman of the game, and it came just one batter after Vladimir Guerrero had blasted a three-run homer.
That was the second time in just over a week that a Texas Rangers pitcher was thrown out of a game against the LAA Angels. In their last series, Adam Eaton was tossed after pitching just two-third of an inning when he threw behind a batter right after surrendering a homerun.
Last night, a tense situation got flat-out ugly. Warnings were issued for both teams when, with a 9-3 Rangers lead in the 8th inning, Angels reliever Kevin Gregg threw a pitch behind Ian Kinsler. After a double by Kinsler, Gregg hit Michael Young, earning an ejection for himself and manager Mike Scioscia.
New pitcher Brendan Donnelly hit the first batter he faced on his fourth pitch, and reportedly stared into the Rangers dugout as the homeplate umpire ejected him and Angels bench coach Ron Roenicke.
The brawl broke out in the top of the ninth inning when Rangers reliever Scott Feldman hit the third batter he faced, Adam Kennedy. Kennedy immediately charged the mound, and a benches-clearing brawl ensued that drew ejections for Kennedy, Feldman, and Rangers manager Buck Showalter. Naturally, Feldman and Showalter both said that Feldman was explicitly told not to hit any Angels batters. Only those two know the truth, but that didn't stop the league from making a judgement.
Suspensions for the events were handed down today, and the league didn't go easy on the offenders. Oddly enough, Feldman got the heaviest suspension, six games. Why he got suspended for two more games than the man that charged the mound, I do not understand. Padilla was supended for five games; Kennedy, Donnelly, Gregg and Showalter were all suspended for three games; Scioscia was suspended for three games and Roenicke was suspended one game.
Suspensions were definitely needed to show the teams that this behavior will not be tolerated. But I thought some of it was excessively heavy-handed. I also said my peace about Feldman, but I also think that the suspensions for the managers were unnecessary. Padilla hitting batters is clearly his own doing, not an order from Showalter. And even without the denial they gave today, I don't think Buck wants to inflame things by retaliating for a hit batter.
As for Scioscia, I'm definitely not a fan. But I also do not think that either he or Roenicke were trying to get back at the Rangers. It's just the kind of stuff that happens when things are tense. By all means, suspend the players to send a message. But let the managers do their jobs. MLB shouldn't hold teams back like that because players decide to take revenge into their own hands. Now, if you have an instance like Ozzie Guillen where you can clearly see the order was given, that's different. But in something like this, I really feel MLB is overstepping its bounds and taking unnecessary moves that negatively affect the game and the playoff race.
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Date
Thu 08/17/06, 3:39 pm EST
