Laureano’s brawl suspension cut to 4 games

Major League Baseball will shorten Oakland A’s outfielder Ramón Laureano’s suspension for charging the Houston Astros’ dugout from six games to four upon Laureano’s appeal, according to numerous reports.

Laureano’s suspension should start Friday and last through the weekend series against the San Francisco Giants, plus a game against the Arizona Diamondbacks in Arizona on Monday.

The timing works well for Laureano and the A’s — the A’s prized outfielder won’t miss any games against American League West division foes.

Laureano was suspended for charging the Houston Astros bench in a game last Sunday. Laureano was hit by a pitch, and cameras caught Astros’ hitting coach Alex Cintrón goaded Laureano to come at him. Cintrón made a lewd comment about Laureano’s mother, according to Laureano.

Cintrón was suspended for 20 games — baseball’s heftiest punishment for an onfield incident in 15 years. He denied making such comments, but apologized in an Astros’ distributed statement for actions he called “inappropriate.”

“I guess it was fun for (Cintrón) to do that,” Laureano said of the incident. “But I’m a man, I’m a freaking man. Whatever happens, happens. And I’ll take it. I couldn’t keep my cool and I should have and I wasted my time with that guy.”

Because a single game in this 60-game season is worth 2.7 games, Laureano’s weighted suspension time comes out to approximately 11 games.