Mini skirmish nets Mariners' Gabe Speier three-game suspension
· Yahoo Sports
Seattle — Major League Baseball didn’t waste any time handing down its verdict on the brief skirmish that occurred in the eighth inning Wednesday night in the Mariners’ 4-2 win over the Tigers.
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Left-handed pitcher Gabe Speier, who twice threw inside to Gleyber Torres, hitting him in the back of the thigh with the second one, was suspended for three games and Mariners’ manager Dan Wilson was suspended for one game.
Speier appealed the ruling. Wilson was expected to serve his suspension Thursday.
“We kind of expected it,” Tigers’ manager AJ Hinch said. “Just based on our own experience earlier this year on how fast the turnaround is.”
Tigers’ lefty Framber Valdez was suspended for five games earlier this season for what the league ruled as intentionally hitting Boston’s Trevor Story with a pitch on May 5.
“Now we can move on,” Hinch said. “I’d be shocked if there was any carryover.”
The benches and bullpens emptied after Speier hit Torres, but nothing came of it other than a lot of jawing. Speier hit Torres, presumably, in retaliation of Tigers lefty Enmanuel De Jesus hitting Cal Raleigh in the previous inning.
“I think it’s over,” Torres said after the game Wednesday. “It’s baseball. I don’t have any issues. I don’t think we hit Raleigh on purpose. But he’s their guy and they were trying to protect him.”
Torres addressed Raleigh in the batter’s box after he was hit with the pitch.
“I didn’t say anything bad to Raleigh,” Torres said “I just told him that I didn’t think we threw at him on purpose. Even before that at-bat, I asked him how he was doing. Getting hit by a pitch is never fun. When they hit me, I just tried to say, ‘De Jesus hit you with two strikes. It wasn’t on purpose.’
“I don’t try to fight nobody. I am not that kind of guy. It’s all good for me.”
Torres actually complimented Speier on how efficiently he carried out the hit.
"He got me good," Torres said. "But he did it professionally. He didn't try to hit me in the face or anything. He got me on a good part of my body."
There has been a raised intensity to the Tigers-Mariners series this season, which is not surprising after the compelling and competitive five-game ALDS last October that ended with the Mariners winning Game 5 in 15 innings.
“We just play really good games, including one of the most epic playoff games and playoff series,” Hinch said. “I think that starts to build experiences against each other and you see some big moments, you see them win some and you see us win some.”
It doesn’t hurt that the teams are neck-and-neck in the hunt for the last wild-card spot. They entered play Thursday separated by a half-game, with the Mariners a game back and the Tigers 1½ games back.
“They’re fighting for their lives, similar to how we are,” Hinch said. “That’s why you see us right next to each other in the standings and both of us expected to be in a better position than we are. A lot of emotion goes with that. And there’s been a lot of close, good games in recent memory and it creates a lot of competitiveness.
"That’s good for the game.”
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This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Mini skirmish nets Mariners' Gabe Speier three-game suspension