In the Red Sox rays game last night, OF Coco Crisp was hit intentionally by Rays SP James Shields. Tensions were looming since Wednesday when Crisp was angry about SS Jason Bartlett blocking 2B on a play. Two innings after Bartlett blocked the bag, Crisp stole 2nd and slid extremely hard into 2B Akinori Iwamura, taking out his legs. Following the game on Wednesday, Rays manager Joe Maddon said Crisp intentionally tried to hurt Iwamura.
Last night, Crisp was hit and immediately charged after Shields. While the brouhaha was not quite as entertaining as the spatter of words between Dan Lerner and Andrew Smith yesterday here on Hot Foot, punches were thrown by both Shields and Crisp. Rays catcher Dioner Navarro was able to tackle Crisp before any hard punches landed, and by then the whole benches were clearing. Here is a video of the melee:
Brawls are always so entertaining. They really make watching Sportscenter an awesome experience in the morning, getting up to see all these athletes taking hacks at each other.
It’s also great getting to see the guys from the bullpen spring into the action thirty seconds into the video after everybody is out there. They’re like, “Wait for us! We’re angry too!”
Pete Lappin (3)
