TORONTO -- An exchange of hit batsmen and some testy words overshadowed a big victory for the Toronto Blue Jays.
Chris Colabello hit a two-run home run, R.A. Dickey threw seven shutout innings and the Blue Jays beat the Kansas City Royals 5-2 Sunday, taking three of four from the team with the best record in the American League.
"I think they're used to pushing people around," Dickey said of the Royals. "So when they come onto the playground and there's a kid that's bigger than they are for a day, I think it probably [ticks] them off. And I can't blame 'em."
Both benches and bullpens emptied after Toronto reliever Aaron Sanchez was ejected for hitting Kansas City's Alcides Escobar on the thigh in the eighth. It was the climax of a game-long spat that began when Royals starter Edinson Volquez hit Josh Donaldson on the left shoulder in the first.
Volquez didn't mince words when asked whether Donaldson overreacted to being hit and to two later pitches that were up and in.
"He's a little baby," Volquez said. "He was crying like a baby."
Donaldson and Volquez traded stares and words as the Blue Jays slugger took a slow walk to first base after being hit. Home-plate umpire Jim Wolf warned both dugouts.
Volquez missed high and inside with a pitch that sailed to the backstop when Donaldson batted again in the third. Blue Jays Manager John Gibbons came out to argue but Volquez was not ejected.
In the seventh, Royals reliever Ryan Madson hit Troy Tulowitzki on the right forearm, then threw high and inside to Donaldson, who stepped out and yelled at Wolf. Gibbons and on-deck hitter Jose Bautista stepped in to break up the argument, and Gibbons was eventually ejected.
Donaldson struck out, but Bautista made it 3-0 with a double to center, and yelled at Madson as he ran to first.
Donaldson and Volquez had to be restrained after Sanchez was ejected for hitting Escobar. Gibbons and Colabello, who'd just been replaced for defense, both ran out to join the scrum. Wolf ejected Sanchez and Blue Jays bench coach DeMarlo Hale.
"Our guy loses a two-seamer and hits a guy in the knee when we've had four balls thrown at our neck the entire day and our guy gets ejected, it just doesn't seem proper," Donaldson said.
The sellout crowd of 45,736 jeered Wolf after the umpires had cleared the field.
"I don't think he made a lot of the right decisions today," Donaldson said of Wolf, who declined to speak with to a pool reporter after the game.
Royals Manager Ned Yost, meanwhile, praised the umpires for doing "a phenomenal job."
"I thought Jim Wolf did a tremendous job understanding the game, understanding what's intentional," Yost said.
Donaldson hit two home runs in the series but struck out three times in the finale.
"He can't take it," Volquez (10-6) said of Donaldson. "I don't know why. He hit a lot of homers in the first couple of games and he was pimping everything he does. Somebody hits you, you've got to take it, because you're pimping everything you do."
Sports on 08/03/2015