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Thursday, June 9, 2011
Updated: June 10, 3:31 AM ET
Red Sox, Yankees plunk each other
By Ian Begley
Special to ESPNNewYork.com
CC Sabathia gave many New York Yankees fans exactly what they'd been hoping for when he hit Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz in the leg with a 97 mph fastball in the fourth inning of Thursday night's game.
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Many Yankees fans had been lusting to see Ortiz dusted off the plate or beaned after he flipped his bat following a home run on Tuesday night.
Joe Girardi said he "didn't care" for Ortiz's bat flip and pirouette after the fifth-inning homer. On Wednesday, after hitting another homer in another Red Sox win, Ortiz was not interested in revisiting the controversy. He made that clear in an expletive-filled exchange with reporters.
"I don't care what Joe Girardi says," Ortiz said to a New York writer. "Take it like a man. I'm done with that."
Ortiz said he did not flip his bat Wednesday so he could avoid being on the "national news."
"I don't want to have you guys asking me the same questions. I got almost 370 bombs in the big leagues and everybody wants to make a big deal because I bat-flip one of them. (Expletive) that (expletive), man. If I have to make that video on my (expletive), let's see how many bat flips I got on this (expletive). Good night."
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It was the first time Ortiz had been hit in 161 career games against the Yankees.
Afterward, he blamed the media for the beaning in another expletive-laced give-and-take with reporters.
"You waiting for me?" he said. "There will be no questions. Just Big Papi talking, and if you don't like it, you can get the [expletive] out of here.
"I just want to thank you guys -- not all of you, most of you -- for the stat today of me not getting hit by the Yankees. I finally got hit. Hope you [expletives] are happy. I'm done.''
Red Sox starter Josh Beckett started the beanball war on Thursday night by hitting both Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez within the first three innings.
After Sabathia retaliated in the fourth, home plate umpire Hunter Wendelstedt warned both benches.
Beckett said he was unaffected by the warning.
"Hunter and I had that talk,'' Beckett said. "He told me he wasn't going to take the inside part of the plate away from either one of us. It is what it is. I thought they handled it well. I'm still trying to figure out if David got hit for something I did or if it was something ESPN stirred up.''
Jeter was seen giving Sabathia a fist-bump as he came off the field in the middle of the fourth. Rodriguez gave the hurler a high-five in the dugout.
Everyone in the Yankees' clubhouse denied there was any intent behind the pitches.
"Jete always gives me a pound after a big inning so that's nothing," Sabathia said. "I threw a two-seamer and it kind of got away."
Added Girardi: "We had four or five guys hit this series and I think they had one. ... Nobody wants to see their guys get hit because you risk injury."
There has been talk of a potential beanball brawl since Jon Lester drilled Mark Teixeira andRussell Martin in the first game of the Yankees-Sox series on Tuesday. Teixeira was knocked out of the game after getting drilled in the knee.
Beckett hit Jeter in the upper arm in the first inning on Thursday and Rodriguez was drilled in the backside in the third. Beckett also hit Curtis Granderson on the foot with a breaking ball in the bottom of the fifth. It appeared to be unintentional.
Ortiz was smiling after getting drilled by Sabathia -- a move that was cheered by Yankees fans.
The left-handed slugger has owned the Yankees throughout his career.
He's hit 364 home runs in his career. Thirty-four have come against the Yankees, a total against one opponent exceeded only by the 39 he has hit against Toronto. And that doesn't count the five home runs he has hit against the Yankees in the postseason, including one of the most dramatic in club history -- the 12th-inning walkoff home run in Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS.
Ortiz has homered in each of the team's past three games against the Yankees, all at Yankee Stadium.
The last Red Sox player to hit home runs in three straight games in the Bronx was Mo Vaughn, back in 1994, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
Girardi admitted before the game that Ortiz was "probably comfortable" at the plate against the Yankees.
"Well he's had a lot of success [against the Yankees] and I think you do get feelings against certain clubs," Girardi said on Thursday. "The question was brought to me about making him uncomfortable.
"We moved him off the plate the other day, I don't know if it was the next pitch or two pitches [later], he hit a home run. The bottom line is if you don't make pitches on this guy, he's going to hurt you and he's going to hurt you bad. And we haven't made the pitches on him. And he probably is comfortable because he's had a lot of success against us."
ESPNBoston.com's Gordon Edes contributed to this report.
Ian Begley is a regular contributor to ESPNNewYork.com.
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