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KC Royals: New Rivalry Emerging With Oakland Athletics

By Leigh Oleszczak

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The KC Royals have had an interesting two games on Friday and Saturday. The Oakland Athletics came to town for a three-game series and what was originally thought to be known mostly as Billy Butler‘s Homecoming has become a nasty two games between the Royals and the Athletics.

It all started during the first game of the series on Friday night in the seventh inning. Jeremy Guthrie had been pulled after giving up yet another solo home run and in came Kelvin Herrera. Herrera’s first pitch to Brett Lawrie went for a single and then came Josh Reddick.

Reddick grounded out off of Herrera’s foot to Mike Moustakas who quickly shot the ball over to Alcides Escobar. Lawrie, trying to prevent the Royals’ stout defense from making a double play, slid hard into second base and ran right into Escobar. Escobar remained on the ground, clearly in pain.

This brought in a round of boos, as the slide really looked intentionally dirty. Lawrie had his cleats in the air and looked like he was going after Escobar. Now as for if he was trying to hurt him and take him out of the game, I’m not sure. No one knows for sure what Lawrie’s intents really were. The point is, it was a dirty slide and uncalled for.

While Lawrie was out at second (despite Oakland challenging the initial ruling), fans continued to boo him as he left the field. This was only the beginning.

Lawrie did apologize on Twitter and apparently to Escobar, but KC Royals fans aren’t buying it.

On Saturday, the Kansas City Royals sent Yordano Ventura out to the mound in game two against the A’s. It’s been well known that Ventura has a fiery attitude and doesn’t let anyone mess with his boys. I think everyone saw some sort of retaliation coming on Saturday, but boy. It almost became an all out riot.

Ventura was doing well until the fourth inning when he gave up two runs with no outs. He then gave up a three-run home run off of Josh Reddick and it all went downhill from there. Lawrie stepped up to the plate (greeted with a jeer of boos for the second time that night) and Ventura just clocked him in the elbow.

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This of course sent Lawrie to first, and Ventura was immediately ejected from the game. Both benches cleared and even both teams’ bullpens came running in on the action. Now I was at the game so I didn’t see if any punches were thrown (I’m assuming not), but man could this have gotten ugly.

Call me biased, but I was perfectly fine with Ventura beaning Lawrie. It was obvious that Ventura didn’t have his usual command on the mound and Lawrie had it coming. When you take a player out of the game from a dirty play, you have to expect the opposing team to retaliate in some way.

Lawrie was getting booed the entire night and you have to wonder if this will now be the beginning of a heated rivalry between the Kansas City Royals and Oakland Athletics. Before this series, I don’t think the two teams really had much beef between them. Most Royals fans dislike the division rivals and a lot don’t care for the St. Louis Cardinals either, but could the A’s be the new team to hate?

The KC Royals have been getting hit by pitches right and left since the beginning of the season and it’s been frustrating to watch. I understand that sometimes that’s the nature of the game, but watching Escobar get taken out of the game (and have to sit out several more, most likely) due to a dirty slide seemed to be the last straw for this Royals team.

All I have to say is: Wildcard game.

Next: Alcides Escobar Calls Brett Lawrie's Slide Dirty

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