Adrian Sampson has beef with Ramon Laureano and the Oakland Athletics that flared up again on Saturday night.
In a game between the Texas Rangers and A’s on June 8, Sampson had issues with Mark Canha and Laureano. The Rangers pitcher was upset with the way Canha admired a home run and let the slugger know it. Sampson also intentionally stepped on Laureano’s bat after retiring him to end an inning.
That’s the background for what happened on Saturday.
Laureano homered off Sampson in the sixth to put Oakland up 5-0. He then walked up the first base line and pointed at his bat, appearing to say, “you want to step on this one?” to Sampson.
Here’s the interaction between Ramón Laureano and Adrian Sampson after the solo blast pic.twitter.com/5xwqLq2fQ2
— Martín Gallegos (@MartinJGallegos) July 28, 2019
When Laureano came up again in the eighth, he was hit by Rafael Montero.
Montero kept throwing inside to Laureano and got him with a fastball on the fourth pitch pic.twitter.com/YzM4OdRNli
— Martín Gallegos (@MartinJGallegos) July 28, 2019
The benches cleared in the incident, though nothing major transpired. Montero and Rangers manager Chris Woodward were both ejected.
Sampson seems to just be one of those home run police pitchers, much like a fiery guy in the National League. That’s going to lead to many frustrating moments for a guy with a 5.12 career ERA.
