ANAHEIM, Calif. – When the Angels made a late decision on Sunday to go with the little-used relief Andrew Wonz as their mound discoverer, the Mariners suspected they might be on the verge of retaliating for a fast ball that came terribly close to Mike’s. Trout head the night before.
Halos insisted that was not their intention – and yet Wantz threw the pitch behind Julio Rodriguez’s head in the first inning and then hit Jesse Winker in the thigh to start the second.
A wild, angry brawl ensued, leading to the expulsion of six players and both managers. The clashes will be remembered by both teams much longer than the Angels’ 2-1 victory over Seattle.
“That probably shouldn’t be happening in the game, what happened there today,” said Seattle manager Scott Servais. “Emotions up, but it was pretty clear what was going on. They exchanged, put on a bottle opener to throw balls at us. I got out of control and something like a black eye.
Both teams dealt numerous blows to the melee that began when Winker invaded Angels’ empty space after screaming at Angels interim manager Phil Nevin.
“Look, you play eight games in a week against the same team, things like that happen,” Nevin said after LA’s eighth game in 11 days against Seattle. “The schedule, the tension, this is sometimes baseball, unfortunately. There are ugly incidents from time to time. I think that’s exactly what happened today. “
The match was delayed by about 18 minutes due to the four minutes of chaos. Along with the two managers, the Angels lost Vanz, the closer Ricesel Iglesias and the relief Ryan Tepera, while the Mariners lost Winker, Rodriguez and JP Crawford – three of the first four strikers in their squad.
“My only comment is that he is classless,” said Seattle starter Marco Gonzalez. “To throw Julio, who is a kid, for something that happened last night when we were trying to win a ball game in the ninth inning (and not) put a tie on the base, it’s just classless to go out and change your pitcher before the game It’s clear. The intention is clear. “
Wantz’s tilt behind Rodriguez certainly seemed to be a response to Erik Swanson’s fast ball of 95 mph near Trout’s head in the ninth inning on Saturday night, a throw that infuriated the three-time MVP in AL. Vanz insisted that was not the case.
“I was quite excited about my first start and the first one just got away with it,” Vanz said. “It was sweaty. I was sweating. The game from the first day I participated (in the big ones) and that’s it. The second one next to Winker was a fast ball cut inside and (I) just pulled it. That’s all I have to say. “
The referees issued warnings to both dugouts after Vanz’s pitch behind Rodriguez, but Winker and Angels began an inning later, with both the benches and the boxes empty. Both Servais and Gonzalez sensed that the judges had made a mistake by not expelling Wonz immediately.
“I don’t know about the Trout incident last night,” crew chief Adrian Johnson told a pool reporter. “You are talking about the terrain that went over his head. It was not for us to issue warnings today. What happened today was a man who was hit. We had warnings. “
Injured Angels star Anthony Randon threw an open left hand at Winker’s face during the fight, remarkably because his right hand is in a cast: Halos’ third baseman for $ 245 million is already out for the year for a second consecutive season.
When Winker finally left the field, he made obscene two-handed gestures to the mocking Angels fans behind the Seattle dugout.
“The only thing I’m going to apologize for is to freak out the fans,” Winker said. “That’s it. As fans, they spend their hard-earned money to come and watch us play a game, and they didn’t deserve it, so I apologize to the fans, especially the women and children.”
After the field cleared, Iglesias returned a few moments later to throw large containers of sunflower seeds and chewing gum on the field as he shouted at the judges, furious at his expulsion.
The rest of the game went without incident. Lewis Rengifo Howred and David McKinnon drove in the tiebreak with a single in the seventh for the Angels, who avoided a series with only their fourth victory in their last 18 home games.
Gonzalez (4-8) dropped the ball with five strokes in the seventh inning after a heavy loss to the left player and the Sailors, who finished 5-1 on an impressive journey – although the final was overshadowed by fists.
Seattle scored the first leg of the game in the sixth in the first Homer in 22 games by Abraham Thoreau, who replaced Crawford at the head of the Sailors.
Rengifo tied the score in the seventh with a solo Homer against Gonzalez, somehow playing a substitution well below the zone of shots across the fence in the left center for his third Homer of the season.
Monte Harrison then drew and scored in a two-out single from Andres Munoz of McKinnon, who has been in a series with each of his three career goals since reaching the big ones last week.
SMART GAME
Harrison made sure his run was counted by throwing his head home just before the Mariners knocked Trout out in third place.
ANGELIC HANDS
Jose Suarez (1-2) defended Angels’ exhausted bullpen when he released Vanz and scored eight over six innings with five shots.
Oliver Ortega then received six outs for his first career save, which helped a lot when Max Stasi knocked out Adam Fraser, trying to steal a second for the second of the ninth.
COACH ROOM
Angels: 2B Matt Duffy left with a tight cross in the fourth inning.
FOLLOWS
Sailors: George Kirby (2-2, 3.12 ERA) took over the mound in Seattle on Monday to open a series against Tyler Wells (5-4, 3.34) and the Baltimore Orioles.
Angels: Noah Sindergaard (4-6, 3.86 ERA) makes his 12th start in a home opening series against Lucas Jolito (4-4, 5.40 ERA) and the Chicago White Sox. Thor has 8 1/3 zero innings in his two career starts against the Sox.
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