Houston Astros infielder Yulieski Gurriel will be suspended for the first five games of the 2018 season for making a racist gesture directed at Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Yu Darvish during Friday's World Series game, Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said Saturday.

After hitting a home run off the Japanese right-hander in Game 3 of the series, Gurriel, 33, used his fingers to stretch his eyes toward his ears and appeared to say a word in Spanish usually used to mock Asian people.

"Major League Baseball is an institution that will not tolerate behavior of this type," Manfred said, adding that the native of Cuba will also have to undergo sensitivity training during the offseason and that he will not be paid for the five games he will miss.

The commissioner lauded the 31-year-old Darvish's response, saying, "He has handled this entire difficult situation in an exemplary way. Especially noteworthy is his expressed view that we should all use this negative incident as an opportunity for learning and deeper understanding."

Gurriel has apologized in a statement released by the Astros.

The discipline will not affect his participation in the ongoing World Series, Manfred said, explaining that it would be unfair to his teammates if the MLB were to punish them as well.

Darvish, 31, whose father is Iranian and mother Japanese, said after Game 4 on Saturday, "It's a finished issue."

Gurriel played for the DeNA BayStars in Nippon Professional Baseball in 2014 when the Cuban government started allowing its players to make transfers abroad. He defected from Cuba in 2016 and joined the Astros.

After Saturday's game, the Dodgers and the Astros are tied 2-2 in the best-of-seven World Series.