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Don't place all the blame for Thursday's brawl on Royals

As expected, the Royals are taking the bulk of the blame for Thursday night's brawl with the White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field.

After all, in six series to open the season, the defending American League champions have fought or nearly come to blows with four opponents - the Sox twice, the Angels and the A's.

Their No. 1 starter, Yordano Ventura, has been ejected from his last two outings - against the White Sox on Thursday night and Oakland last Saturday.

"You play hard and something just goes wrong," said Kansas City starter Edinson Volquez, who was one of five players ejected Thursday. "We've been through this a lot the last two weeks."

It would be fair to say Ventura sparked the Sox-Royals fight, considering he drilled Jose Abreu above the left elbow with a 98-mph fastball in the fourth inning and swore at Adam Eaton in the seventh after fielding a grounder back to the mound.

That's when the brawl broke out, but the White Sox had some ugly moments of their own during and after the fracas.

Let's start with Chris Sale, who obviously retaliated for Abreu being hit in the fifth inning by going up and in on Mike Moustakas. The Kansas City third baseman was lucky he wasn't seriously injured after Sale's pitch deflected off his right shoulder and hit him in the jaw.

Along with Jeff Samardzija, Sale was ejected and he faces certain suspension.

It will be interesting to see what Major League Baseball thinks about Sale going to Royals' clubhouse while the game was still being played to confront Ventura again.

"I mean, there's really nothing to talk about," Sale said. "It is what it is. What's done is done. It's all in the past. Baseball's a day-to-day sport; every day is a new day. So anything that happened yesterday, we're ready to win a ballgame today and we're just ready to put this all behind us."

According to a source, Alex Rios, a former White Sox outfielder now playing for the Royals, prevented Sale from getting into the K.C. clubhouse and later "calmed him down."

Sox manager Robin Ventura spoke to Sale about his serious lapse in judgment.

"All emotions are running high at that point," Ventura said. "You've got to have a conversation and you move on from there. Luckily, cooler heads prevailed and nothing happened."

Samardzija was anything but a cool head during the fight.

The Sox' new starting pitcher actually escalated the brawl while trying to get at Cain, whom he hit with a pitch in the April 6 season opener at Kansas City.

Samardzija is obviously trying to make a good early impression on his teammates and bring some toughness that's been missing in recent years, but he took it too far Thursday night.

"Obviously it's unfortunate what happened and nobody wants things to turn out that way, but that's the way they went," Samardzija said. "It's the game we play. There's a lot of emotions and a lot of passion. A lot of people care about this game and everyone wants to win."

Samardzija was nearly decked by a Volquez punch, which missed, and he could have been seriously injured given his active brawling.

There is little doubt his aggressive actions already scored big points with White Sox fans, but Samardzija has to be smarter moving forward.

"Listen, we're playing big man's game here," Samardzija said. "I think a lot of things get blown out of proportion. Like I said, nobody wants to act that way. In a way it's embarrassing, and you want to come back and show that you want to be known for what you do on the field and the way you play the game.

"Obviously, look back on it and you're not happy about it, you're not proud about it. But I wear my emotions on my sleeve and I care for my teammates and I want to win every game."

• Follow Scot's White Sox and baseball reports on Twitter@scotgregor.

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