There are a lot of “baseball fights” then there are BASEBALL FIGHTS. Manny Machado and Yordano Ventura got into the latter on Tuesday with Machado charging the mound and landing a couple shots on Ventura before wrestling him to the ground.
Ventura was having a rough night. He’d allowed six early runs. Maybe this 99 mph fastball just got loose by mistake. Or maybe he had enough of this night. Either way, Machado didn’t seem to appreciate it. The helmets and hats quickly came off and the brawl was on. That was about as legit of a baseball fight as you’ll see, too. Machado and Ventura were both swinging away. Machado got the better end of the fight, appearing to land a shot before tackling Ventura to the ground. There was a bit of a wrestling move before the teams got involved.
This is hardly Ventura’s first foray into controversy. During one stretch last season, Ventura got into a bench-clearing altercation with the Angels and Mike Trout. Then he had issues with the Athletics after plunking Brett Lawrie. The conflicts continued days later when Ventura was at the center of a brawl with the Chicago White Sox.
At this rate, Ventura will have incited a bench-clearing altercation with the entire American League by the end of 2017.
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Baseball’s last brawl
