Brett Lawrie plays a hard brand of baseball, and on Friday night Royals shortstop Alcides Escobar paid the price. Lawrie slid hard into the Kansas City shortstop in the opener of their three-game set vs. the Oakland Athletics, and injured him. Little did he know what havoc that would wreak.
In the next game, fireballing right-hander Yordano Ventura exacted revenge on Lawrie, drilling him with a hard fastball. Lawrie wore it and took his base, not even acknowledging Ventura's staredown. Normally, this would close the book on the whole affair, but it was only beginning.
On Sunday Royals center fielder Lorenzo Cain was hit in the foot in the first inning. In the eighth inning, Royals reliever Kelvin Herrera threw inside to Lawrie, then hurled the next pitch at triple-digit speed just behind him. Ejections were thrown around, and on his way off the field Herrera pointed to his head, apparently threatening to drill Lawrie upstairs the next time they meet.
Lawrie, who maintains he texted an apology to Escobar on Friday after hurting him with the slide, said enough is enough following the weekend of beanings and angry chatter.
"You don't throw behind someone and then walk away when you throw 100 miles an hour and say the next time that I face you I'm going to hit you in the head. That's s**t," Lawrie told reporters. Later in his reaction he brought up Herrera's ability to his three digits on the radar gun again. "It's not like he throws 85. He throws 100."
Lawrie is known for his intensity on the field. This is his first season with the Oakland A's, and so far he has hit .265 with one home run and three RBI.
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