Move over, Bob Gibson. No, seriously, I really mean move over because after Red Sox SP John Lackey has enjoyed delivery from one of Tampa/St. Pete’s many KFC franchises, plus a few beers, he’s gonna require some serious space to stretch out…and possibly explain while a mere bat flip on the part of the Rays’ Matt Joyce necessitate a drilling. Tampa manager Joe Maddon’s reaction, courtesy the Boston Globe’s Peter Abraham :
“So he intentionally hit him when he did, there’s no question in my mind that he did, and the sad part is that I’ve always considered Lackey a good teammate, but right there he can get one of his own players hurt,” Maddon said.
“I really did sense among the group of Red Sox that they were totally not into that moment because they knew it was inappropriate to hit Matt on purpose, and furthermore because one of them can get hurt. So that’s being a bad teammate as far as I’m concerned. In the past, he was always a good teammate. That was really a bad moment for him tonight.
Said Joyce: “I don’t know if he was so upset that I swung 3-0. It was more so the bat drop after I hit it. For me, I never really feel like I show anybody up. I never try to pimp anything or anything like that. I felt like I got a really good pitch to hit and missed it and was upset. But to hit somebody for that, I think that’s absolutely ridiculous.”