Yankees-Rays: The Live Blog

Links (10)

Phillips ejected for "retaliating"
Published 3/12/2008 by Andrew Fletcher at Scott Proctor's Arm - A New York Yankees Blog
... Rays for the first time since the Francisco Cervelli incident on Saturday. Many people expected some sort of retaliation from the Yankees today. Heath Phillips, starting in place of Andy Pettitte, had already given up two runs and had two runners on before nicking Evan Longoria with a pitch. He was immediately ejected by home plate umpire Chad Fairchild. The pitch "barely brushed across the chest," according to Peter Abraham on the scene.

Yankees and Rays Brawl in Spring Training Rematch
Published 3/12/2008 at FanIQ Blog
You had to expect something would happen this afternoon in the first Rays-Yankees meeting since Francisco Cervelli had his wrist broken by a hard play at the plate. How dare a player trying to make the roster try hard. The Yanks whined all weekend about the play and feel Spring Training games should be taken lightly. Well, that is everyone except Shelley Duncan. From Peter Abraham's live blog of today's game: WE HAVE A BRAWL Shelley ...

Yankees payback Rays
Published 3/12/2008 by Mark Serio at BASEBALL HOT CORNER
... Here's how Peter Abe at Lohud described what happened: "Shelley Duncan (of course) started the top of the second with a single. He tried to go to second as the ball rolled behind third base and was out by five feet. Duncan slid in with his spikes exceedingly high at Akinori Iwamura and was tagged out. He was immediately ejected." A brawl followed the ejection. ...

Yanks and Rays are brawlin’
Published 3/12/2008 by Jason at MY BASEBALL BIAS
... First, Yankees pitcher Heath Phillips was ejected in the first inning for coming in high and tight on the Rays Even Longoria. According to Peter Abraham, the pitch brushed his jersey and the umpire overreacted. Still, Phillips was thrown out of the game. Then, all hell broke lose. Shelly Duncan led of the top of the second trying to stretch a single into a double. Again, according to PeteAbe, he slide in with his spikes high right toward Rays second baseman Akinori Iwamuara and was out by five feet. Johnny Gomes raced in from the outfield and tackled Duncan. Both were ...

Yanks vs. Rays, Round 2: The Girardi Era Begins
Published 3/12/2008 by Moshe Mandel at The Bronx Block
... play with “increased intensity” in today’s game. In the first inning, Heath Phillips hit Evan Longoria with a pitch and was summarily ejected. According to Peter Abraham, the umpire overreacted, as there were two runners on, Phillips had struggled with his command, and the pitch barely brushed Longoria. It seemed like this might have been the end of the brewing Rays-Yankees feud. Then came Shelley Duncan’s at-bat to lead off the second inning. In the words of Peter Abraham, ...

Classy Yanks Defend The Honor Of Francisco Cervelli
Published 3/12/2008 by GC at Can't Stop The Bleeding
Congrats, Akinori Iwamuri!  You’ve just been spiked in the nuts by a man named Shelley. At the risk of being the 37,000th blogger to write something similar this afternoon, why, oh why couldn’t the Yankees’ return bout with the Rays have coincided with Billy Crystal’s Grapefruit League debut?

Duncan playing dirty?
Published 3/12/2008 by Jason at MY BASEBALL BIAS
Judge for yourself, but this is what Duncan had to say about the incident: “I just went hard into his glove. I was just going in hard. There was no malicious intent.” Just for the record, Akinori Iwamura’s thigh was cut by Duncan’s spike.

Bad Shelley
Published 3/12/2008 by Joseph P. at River Avenue Blues » River Avenue Blues, A New York Yankees Blog
... PeteAbe told us this afternoon that Shelley Duncan slid into Akinori Iwamura with his right spike high. Okay, I thought. No big deal. No, you don’t want your guys taking out other guys’ knees at this time of year, but from the description, it seemed harmless. In fact, I even privately chastised Jonny Gomes for running in from right field. But then I saw this pic: ...

Baseball Today: Thursday, March 13
Published 3/13/2008 by Art Martone (amartone@projo.com) at Projo Sox Blog
... part of the whole thing was the reaction of Yankee fans. They long chafed under the Yanks' refusal, under Joe Torre, to retaliate when their batters would be hit by pitches, particularly against the Red Sox. So after Duncan's play -- probably the best description would be a direct, if politically incorrect, phrase used by Bill James in a different context: "A Zulu warrior stunt to avenge the paisan" -- I jumped to Peter Abraham's blog to see what the fans were saying. Most of them loved it. ("This is awesome, so sick of the Torre era turning the other cheek. Time for some ...

Hank: Don't Mess With Us!
Published 3/15/2008 by redsock at The Joy of Sox
... I can tell you is that I will support everything he [Joe Girardi] does, and that will never change. ... "I don't want these teams in general to forget who subsidizes a lot of them, and it's the Yankees, the Red Sox, Dodgers, Mets. I would prefer if teams want to target the Yankees that they at least start giving some of that revenue sharing and luxury tax money back."Wow. What a moron! Yankee beat writer/blogger Peter Abraham says Shelley Duncan slid into Akinori Iwamura at second like he's Bruce Lee. ... He took ...