Lackey Is Charged With Loss

The Angels lost again, but not meekly. After a Tuesday afternoon with the Oakland Athletics that included a bench-clearing brawl, a few punches, three ejections and three hit batters, John Lackey officially declared a feud.

Is there bad blood between the Angels and the A’s?

“If there wasn’t, there is now,” Lackey said.

The A’s won their fifth consecutive game, 10-3, behind three-run home runs from Eric Chavez and Bobby Crosby. The Angels lost their fifth consecutive game, falling three games under .500 for the first time in three years.

And, with the Angels’ starting rotation already weakened by injuries to Bartolo Colon and Kelvim Escobar, Lackey could be slapped with a suspension that would force him to miss a start.

“I’ll appeal this one until I die,” Lackey said.

The final score is somewhat misleading. The A’s poured on six runs in the ninth inning off J.C. Romero and Chris Bootcheck, but the game was taut when tempers first erupted in the sixth inning. The A’s led, 3-1, and had the bases loaded with one out and Jason Kendall at bat.

Lackey threw a breaking ball inside when Kendall said he was looking for a fastball outside. Lackey barked at Kendall to stop sticking his elbow pads over the plate, essentially accusing him of trying to get hit. Kendall barked back, then dropped his bat and charged the mound.

“The guy’s been hit 200-something times,” Lackey said. “There’s a reason for that.” Kendall has been hit 201 times, seventh in major league history.

“I’m not trying to be a tough guy or anything, but I’m not going to let anyone talk to me like that,” Kendall said.

Said Chavez: “I guess he caught Jason at the wrong moment, which is not hard to do.”

Angel catcher Jeff Mathis wrapped his arms around Kendall but couldn’t stop him. Lackey put Kendall in a headlock with his left hand and started throwing punches with his right hand. As Mathis, Lackey and Kendall fell to the ground, benches cleared.

Kendall was ejected. So was Lackey -- not for fighting, but for instigating the fight.

“I’m very disturbed John got thrown out,” Angel Manager Mike Scioscia said. “You can let any hitter charge a pitcher and get him taken out of the game? Is that what this is about? That’s an absolute joke.”

Said umpire Dale Scott: “The whole reason Kendall went after him -- which was completely wrong, and of course he’s going to be ejected -- is because Lackey yelled at him aggressively, very aggressively. He took a couple steps beyond where he usually ends up where he pitches, basically challenging him.

“If Kendall doesn’t run out, I’m not going to run Lackey. But Lackey has to hold some part of the responsibility for the reason the two teams were out on the field. If he doesn’t yell, he [Kendall] doesn’t charge. It’s that simple.”

Although Kendall was not hit, Scott warned both teams that any hit batters from then on might warrant ejection. When Oakland’s Chad Gaudin hit Robb Quinlan when there were two out, two strikes and none on in the ninth, Scott did not eject Gaudin. Scioscia went ballistic, and Scott ejected him.

Quinlan left the game with a bruise above his right elbow, and the Angels sent him for X-rays. Gaudin and Oakland Manager Ken Macha said there was no intent to hit Quinlan, but Scioscia scoffed at that explanation.

“We usually play hard baseball -- both clubs -- and pretty clean baseball, but I’m very disturbed on the last pitch to Robb Quinlan,” Scioscia said.

“That was very obvious.”

Scott said he did not believe the pitch was intentional. The A’s were simply throwing inside, the very privilege he said Scioscia had asked him to protect when he issued the warnings.

“He’d been disgruntled since the sixth inning, so it was time for him to go,” Scott said.

In the clubhouse, Lackey wasn’t entirely upset. This was the Angels’ first big brawl, he said, since one with the San Diego Padres in spring training in 2002. “The last time we got in a fight, we won the [World] Series,” Lackey said. “I’ll be OK with that. Let’s get it rolling.”