ANAHEIM, Calif. — Fallout from baseball’s nastiest brawl of the season hit the Los Angeles Angels and the Seattle Mariners swift and hard Monday with 12 uniformed personnel between the 2 teams receiving a complete of 47 games’ price of suspensions for his or her actions in Sunday’s spirited melee.
Major League Baseball made its strongest statement by suspending Phil Nevin, the Angels’ interim manager, for 10 games, citing “the intentional throwing by pitcher Andrew Wantz while warnings were in place.” Nevin, who began his suspension Monday evening as his team opened a three-game series with the Chicago White Sox, has only managed the Angels for 19 games because the club fired Joe Maddon on June 7.
Other harsh suspensions went to Mariners outfielder Jesse Winker (seven games, likely largely for an obscene gesture directed toward Angels fans as he exited the sphere) and shortstop J.P. Crawford (five games), in addition to Angels third baseman Anthony Rendon and assistant pitching coach Dom Chiti (five games each).
The brawl began within the second inning on Sunday but tensions between the 2 clubs had been escalating because the night before, when Seattle reliever Erik Swanson threw a pitch near Mike Trout’s head. Trout, who has 53 profession homers against the Mariners — his most against any opponent — voiced his displeasure to reporters after the sport.
“For those who can’t pitch inside, don’t pitch inside,” Trout said. “For those who’re going to hit me, hit me within the ribs. Don’t hit me in the pinnacle.”
There had also been a scary incident on June 18, when Mariners outfielder Justin Upton was hit in the pinnacle by a Michael Lorenzen pitch, which each teams looked as if it would understand on the time was an accident. Lorenzen was emotional after that game, blasting the baseballs getting used in games this 12 months for being too slippery. Coincidental or not, three days later M.L.B. moved to standardize how the balls are prepared before games and sent a memo to every team detailing protocol.
Shortly before Sunday’s game — the eighth game between the teams in an 11-day span — the Angels named Wantz as their “opener.” It was Wantz’s first profession start, and it became a suspicious strategy when he immediately threw the ball behind the pinnacle of Seattle’s Julio Rodríguez in the primary inning, eliciting an offended response from Seattle Manager Scott Servais. The umpires immediately warned each benches.
Speaking Monday afternoon, before punishments were levied, Nevin addressed whether he had used Wantz as an opener for that specific purpose. “That’s not factual,” he said. “But I don’t wish to get right into a disagreement with that. What’s done is completed. Yesterday’s over and done with.”
Nevertheless it wasn’t, due to the suspensions that were still looming.
Wantz stayed in the sport after the incident with Rodríguez, and when he drilled Winker within the rear end within the second inning, the outfielder reacted angrily and, eventually, moved toward the Angels’ dugout while yelling and gesturing.
The benches and bullpens quickly emptied, delaying the sport by 18 minutes. Rendon, who’s out for the season following surgery on his right wrist, was certainly one of the primary players to interact Winker. M.L.B. said Rendon’s suspension was for “his actions throughout the incident and for leaving the dugout while on the Injured List. His suspension can be served when he returns from the Injured List. Along with the suspension, Rendon is prohibited from sitting on the bench for the Angels’ next seven games.”
Nevin and Chiti were two of 5 members of the Angels’ coaching staff to receive suspensions. Others included a bench coach (Ray Montgomery, two games), a catching coach (Bill Haselman, one game) and even an interpreter (Manny Del Campo, two games).
There have been so many suspensions that M.L.B. staggered them: Nevin, Chiti and Del Campo began serving their suspensions on Monday night, after they watched the Angels beat the White Sox, 4-3, from an upstairs suite in Angel Stadium. Montgomery and Haselman, in keeping with M.L.B., will begin serving their suspension after Chiti returns from his.
Along with the staff and Rendon, Wantz was suspended for 3 games “for his intentional throwing at Jesse Winker of the Mariners while warnings were in place” and two other Angels relievers were suspended as well, Ryan Tepera (three games) and closer Raisel Iglesias (two). Tepera and Iglesias are appealing so their punishments can be delayed until after their hearings.
The three suspended Mariners’ players — Crawford, Rodríguez (two games) and Winker — were 1-2-3 within the lineup for Monday night’s 9-2 loss to Baltimore at T-Mobile Park, as their suspensions are subject to their appeals. Servais, the Mariners’ manager, was ejected throughout the brawl, but he was not suspended.
The Mariners also placed backup catcher Luis Torrens on the 10-day injured list on Monday with left shoulder inflammation, an injury that occurred throughout the fight.
The punishments weren’t announced by M.L.B. until about 40 minutes before the Angels played the White Sox here and about an hour before the Mariners faced the Orioles in Seattle.
“It’s a part of the sport that I’m not very pleased with, quite frankly,” Servais told Seattle reporters before Monday’s game. “I believe we should always be higher than this. I do know people prefer to see it, however it isn’t hockey. It’s uncalled for.”
Trout, who was not available to the media after the brawl on Sunday, declined to debate the fight.
The Angels and the Mariners next meet for 3 games in Seattle starting on Aug. 5.
