A’s players on Monday came to the defense of teammate Ramón Laureano, who may be facing a lengthy suspension from Major League Baseball for his role in Oakland’s bench-clearing melee with the Houston Astros at the Coliseum the day before.
In the seventh inning Sunday in what would become a 7-2 win by the A’s, Laureano, after he was plunked by a Humberto Castellanos pitch, got into a shouting match with Astros hitting. . .
Relief pitcher Burch Smith said the incident might bring the A’s closer together.