Manny Machado felt he needed to stand up for himself and his team after getting drilled by Yordano Ventura.
The eccentric Royals pitcher plunked Machado in the back with a 99 mph fast ball in the fifth inning, which led to the Orioles third baseman charging the mound and punching him in the face. The benches then cleared and a brawl ensued.
There was some build-up to this climax as the two players exchanged words in the second inning when Ventura buzzed Machado inside twice.
Machado, 23, was warned by Orioles manager Buck Showalter before the fifth-inning at-bat that he believed Ventura was trying to hit him earlier in the game, the skipper said afterward. Machado landed a solid punch on Ventura, who eventually tackled him to the ground.
After the game, the superstar third baseman didn't have any negative feelings about what went down.
"I don't regret anything," Machado said, according to the New York Post. "When somebody's throwing 99 at you, it's going to hurt. You can ruin someone's career. You don't think in that situation. You just react to it."
Ventura, 25, claimed the hit by pitch wasn't intentional and even threw dirt on Machado's character after the game.
"Everybody knows what kind of player he is," the pitcher told the media through an interpreter. "One just got away and he came at me, and I have to defend myself at that point."
This is the second incident in as many months where one player struck another on the field.
During a Rangers-Blue Jays game on May 15, Texas infielder Rougned Odor punched Toronto outfielder Jose Bautista in the face after the latter slid hard into second base. The benches cleared in that game and Odor served a seven-game suspension for his role in the incident.
It's likely Ventura and Machado will also be hearing from the league.
When play resumed, Baltimore marched on to a 9-1 victory as Kansas City's season-high skid slid to six games. Mark Trumbo hit his league-leading 20th homer in the victory.
These teams close out their three-game set on Wednesday as Edinson Volquez (5-5, 4.03 ERA) toes the rubber for the Royals and the Orioles counter with Chris Tillman (7-1, 3.33), who held back Machado during the benches-clearing incident and may have saved him from further discipline.
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