The benches cleared during Thursday’s game between the Chicago White Sox and Kansas City Royals after Royals pitcher Yordano Ventura and White Sox outfielder Adam Eaton exchanged words.
Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times provided more context for the developments:
This started with Royals pitcher Ventura catching comebacker by Eaton, looking at Eaton and saying "F-you" before throwing him out at first
— Daryl Van Schouwen (@CST_soxvan) April 24, 2015
Many bench-clearing brawls and dustups in baseball happen when a pitcher drills a batter with a pitch. However, that is not how this scuffle began, as Bleacher Report’s national MLB columnist Scott Miller described while also pointing out this isn't the first incident for Ventura:
Yordano Ventura started jawing with Eaton on a comebacker to mound.