Lawrie on suspended Herrera: 'You get what you deserve'
ANAHEIM -- A's third baseman Brett Lawrie, at the center of weekend-long theater in Kansas City, weighed in on the five-game suspension Royals reliever Kelvin Herrera received on Tuesday for intentionally throwing at Lawrie on Sunday. Herrera was also fined an undisclosed amount.
"You get what you deserve, more or less," said Lawrie.
When asked if he believed it to be sufficient punishment, the infielder said, "That's not up to me to make that call. All I know he's got five games he's not playing, and that's up to the league."
Video: Reddick discusses tensions between A's, Royals
Teammate Josh Reddick, who spoke out over the weekend, did so again Tuesday when approached about the Royals' penalties, which included an undisclosed fine for Yordano Ventura, who hit Lawrie on the left elbow Saturday, in retaliation for Lawrie's hard slide into Royals second baseman Alcides Escobar while trying to break up a double play in Friday's series opener.
"I don't think it's enough," said Reddick. "Five games for a reliever, it's two or three appearances, at most. The potential their lineup has, it could end up being none, and they could not even need to use him five games straight, so I honestly thought it should be seven to 10, but hopefully MLB did it the right way and the amount of the fine being enough to make up what didn't get covered for the game suspensions. Hopefully it's enough for him to learn his lesson.'"
On Sunday, after a Scott Kazmir slider hit Lorenzo Cain in the foot in the first inning, Herrera threw a 100-mph pitch behind Lawrie in the eighth and was ejected. As he was walking to the dugout he gestured at his head and pointed at Lawrie, which Lawrie interpreted as a threat that he was going to throw at his head next time.
Herrera insisted it meant, "Think about it."
Video: Mark DeRosa on the scuffles between Royals and A's
The reliever was one of six Royals, including manager Ned Yost, to be ejected during the three-game series. The A's kept everyone on the field, and no one in the organization was suspended or fined.
"That was probably the worst series of baseball that I've ever played," said Lawrie. "I don't think you can even call it baseball, because it wasn't. I've never been a part of anything like that in three days in my entire life. It wasn't baseball. It didn't feel like baseball.
"And the way their fans approached everything, I hated it. The way their fans were antagonizing everything, you know, I got a first-pitch missed curveball up in my head and everyone leaps up in their seat like Bruce Buffer is about to come out. That's not how we're doing things.
"Shame on their fans for antagonizing everything that went on there, because that had a lot to do with it. Shame on the players and their team that went with it. I'm just glad it's all over and we're moving on. We don't have to see them till June, and we're just going to continue to go out and continue playing baseball."