Things got tense in Oakland with a brewing feud between the A’s and Rangers boiling over. The backstory started on June 8 when Mark Canha homered off Rangers pitcher Samson. As Canha rounded the bases, Samson told him to run, sparking a back-and-forth exchange. Canha didn’t back down. Later that inning, Ramon Laureano claimed Samson stepped on his bat intentionally. Fast forward to the latest matchup and Canha wasted no time getting his payback, hitting another homer off Samson in the second inning. True to his word, he sprinted around the bases.
In their next face-off, Samson pitched Canha outside twice before hitting him with a pitch. Intentional or not, the A’s were visibly unhappy. Laureano responded with a massive 450-foot homer, then stared Samson down while yelling about his bat being stepped on. The umpires issued warnings to both benches to keep the situation from escalating. But things flared up again in the eighth inning when another A’s batter got hit. This time the benches cleared. Tension was high, but amid the chaos, some players like Elvis Andrus and Liam Hendriks were seen laughing, joking, and even playfully untucking each other’s shirts.
Not everyone was calm, though. Asdrúbal Cabrera was visibly upset, though it wasn’t clear exactly why. He argued with teammates and needed to be calmed down by Corey Seager, who gave him a pep talk and a back rub. The young pitcher involved in the final hit-by-pitch got ejected due to prior warnings. The whole thing was messy but entertaining, with a mix of grudges, big swings, hit batters, and bizarre sideline chemistry.