On Saturday in Kansas City, there was an ugly round of beanballs between the Royals and Indians, centering around Cleveland starter Jeanmar Gomez. Paul Hoynes explains:

Gomez, in his first start of the year, was tossed for hitting Kansas City's Mike Moustakas to start the inning. Gomez was responding to a bench-clearing incident that happened in the top of the third when Royals left-hander Jonathan Sanchez hit Shin-Soo Choo in the right knee.

Here's what it looked like; it's pretty clear it was on purpose:

Benches emptied, words exchanged, all the traditional baseball "brawl" things; no one was injured. As you might expect, Gomez has been suspended:

Jeanmar Gomez has been suspended for 5 games by the MLB League Office for actions in Saturday's game at KC. He will appeal & start Sat @ OAK

— Cleveland Indians (@Indians) April 18, 2012

And so the kabuki dance begins. They'll have a hearing on the appeal, likely not until the Indians come to New York, which won't be until late June. They could do a videoconference, but it would probably be blacked out... oh, wait, that's another issue.

Suspensions of starting pitchers have no effect unless they're for at least six games, but this one isn't likely to be increased. There has to be a better way, but don't expect one any time soon.