Yordano Ventura's competitiveness often created conflict
Yordano Ventura, who died in a car crash early Sunday at the age of 25, was perhaps best known for an unwillingness to back down from opponents, a mentality that spawned several on-field confrontations over his four seasons with the Kansas City Royals.
While the Royals at large gained something of a bad boy reputation during their rise to consecutive AL championships in 2014-15, many of the incidents featured Ventura at the center.
A look back at some of the highly competitive Ventura's most charged moments:
April 12, 2015 vs. Angels
Ventura tossed a pitch that came a little high and inside on Trout. Then, the star Angels outfielder slapped a single up the middle and Ventura had something to say. When Trout came around to score, there was a confrontation and the benches cleared.
April 18, 2015 vs. Athletics
In Ventura’s very next start, he was ejected for hitting Brett Lawrie with a pitch. The benches emptied, but nothing more happened.
April 23, 2015 vs. White Sox
Ventura was involved in a confrontation for the third consecutive start when he taunted White Sox outfielder Adam Eaton after snaring a comebacker. The benches cleared and a melee ensued. Ventura was suspended seven games.
August 2015 vs. Blue Jays
In a series of since-deleted tweets posted in Spanish, Ventura railed against Blue Jays outfielder Jose Bautista after Bautista tweeted that he lost a lot of respect for Royals manager Ned Yost. The rough translation of Ventura's tweets:
"You should play the game like it's supposed to be played and stop giving signs. I have a problem with you because how fresh you are [in this case fresh means disrespectful] and you're nothing. You got saved by 'luck' but they're not canceling major league baseball this year. Keep saying what you want. We'll see later if you do it to me so you see what's up. I don't care about anyone. I used to respect you but now to me you're nothing."
June 7, 2016 vs. Orioles
Perhaps Ventura's most infamous incident, Machado charged the mound and took a huge swing at Ventura after getting hit in the back with a pitch. Ventura was suspended nine games.