On Friday night, Athletics third baseman Brett Lawrie led with his spikes on a slide into second base in an attempt to break up a 5-6-3 double play, resulting in an injury for Royals shortstop Alcides Escobar. The injury was described as a mid-left knee strain. Escobar remains out of the Royals’ lineup for Saturday’s game.
The Royals were quite unhappy with Lawrie’s slide and the benches cleared. Lawrie claimed to have apologized via text message to Escobar after the game, but Escobar says he never got an apology. Take it away, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle:KC PR man extraordinaire Mike Swanson double checked with Escobar, who says he never got a text from Lawrie, showed Swanson his phone.
— Susan Slusser (@susanslusser) April 18, 2015
Escobar thinks Lawrie got an old number, says if he gets a text in English, he responds in English, not Spanish.
— Susan Slusser (@susanslusser) April 18, 2015
Escobar says he knows Hosmer gave Lawrie his number; Hosmer had told him he did.
— Susan Slusser (@susanslusser) April 18, 2015
No one changes cell numbers more often than pro athletes, so it’s entirely possible that Escobar has a new number and Lawrie got an old one.
— Susan Slusser (@susanslusser) April 18, 2015
For those who had asked: Brett Lawrie’s text to the number for Alcides Escobar that Eric Hosmer gave him: pic.twitter.com/4svOO6WoUy
— Susan Slusser (@susanslusser) April 18, 2015
Apology-gate! In all seriousness, as Slusser suggests, it was probably a simple matter of Lawrie getting an old number.