Joe Girardi may not have thought there would be carry over from Sunday's home plate collision, but oh yes there was. Shelley Duncan slid spikes high into Rays 2nd Baseman Akinori Iwamura, touching off a bench clearer. Rays right fielder Jonny Gomes tackled Duncan and the benches emptied.Both Duncan and Gomes, as well as Yankees coaches Bobby Meacham and Kevin Long were ejected from the game.
Yankees starter Heath Phillips was having a rough enough inning, having allowed 2 runs, when he was ejected for hitting the Rays Evan Longoria.
Girardi vehemently argued the call and he probably had a point since the ball barely hit Longoria, and the Rays already had two men on base.Unfortunately there was no live TV or radio coverage of the game.
Source: PeteAbe
Follow up from Peter Abraham, with clubhouse quotes.
Iwamura has a cut on his thigh from Duncan’s spike. “Duncan himself knows it wasn’t a fair play,” he said.From Yankees.comJohnny Gomes: “It was premeditated on his part. … I know it’s not the Yankee way. You rarely see the Yankees do stuff like that.”
Duncan: “I just went hard into his glove. I was just going in hard. There was no malicious intent.”
"I just think [Duncan] tried to inflict pain on Aki," Gomes said. "That just comes second nature. I was taught all the way from T-ball to have a teammate's back.
"It's a baseball field. There's fans and kids watching. I had to let [Duncan] know that's not going to fly."
This clearly isn't over.
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I just saw the highlight reel on ESPN and it wasn't very impressive. Duncan's leg was a little high, but it definitely was not as bad as the still frame photo floating around the internet shows.
ReplyDeleteWas Duncan trying to get payback? Maybe, but after watching the video I'm not sure. I can understand the umps ejecting him, but the tackle was uncalled for.
I don't mean to stick up for Duncan, he definitely shouldn't have made that slide in a spring game, just as Johnson never should have run into Cervelli. There's no place for that in Spring training.
I definitely don't think the inside pitch was deliberate either. Phillips was having control problems and had no intention of hitting anyone on that pitch.
-Jeff