Base Knocks

For anyone jonesin’ for a good old fashioned basebrawl, this week should have gotten your testosterone flowing:

• On Wednesday night, the Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays rehashed what might be quickly becoming the biggest rivalry in baseball. In the sixth inning of Wednesday night’s game, Coco Crisp took exception to Jason Bartlett’s blocking of second base on his stolen base attempt (Rightfully so, considering the potential injuries a tactic like that may cause if the runner is diving head first as Coco was). Later in the game, Crisp sent a message to the Rays and exchanged words with TB manager, Joe Maddon. I’d say that message was loud and clear.

• On Thursday, retaliation from the Rays was imminent, as was Crisp’s reaction after James Shields pelted him in the thigh with a fastball during his first at bat. Crisp unleashed his boxer instincts that he inherited from his father, a former professional boxer.

• Crisp certainly didn’t beat around the bush when asked questions about the incident after the game. Here’s an excerpt from Steve Silva’s Extra Bases blog on Boston.com:

“I charged the mound. I feigned it like I was going to go to first base, just to get Navarro off me a little bit, and just charged the mound,” Crisp said. “He tried to hit me with a haymaker. He missed. I threw a punch. I pretty much missed. And the rest, went down to the ground… like the scratches on my face were people trying to scratch like we were playing football or something, like little girls, trying to scratch out my eyes. I move one hand down, scratch me right here [points to scratch to the right of his nose].”

“After that, people were trying to pull my hair like little girls. Instead of throwing some real punches or something like that… I’m down on the ground, I mean the fight’s pretty much over baseball-term wise. You wanna come in late, and throw some extra blows and get your little blows in, that’s cool. I’ll cover up. It’s all good, trying to pull some hair. It’s all right. It was between me and Shields that time and everybody tried to get their little blows in I think even more… he was unsure if he really wanted to hit me or not it seemed like, but ‘cause he didn’t really hit me hard.”

“Big dude, what’s his name Jonny Gomes, he tried to come in, a hefty dude, tried to throw some blows but I think Navarro, I credit him. And actually I credit Shields, too ‘cause, even though we went at it, he hit me in the leg. He didn’t try to hit me in the head so that’s good. He didn’t like try to kill me. Then I ran out there, then he tried to hit me in the head, so that’s the way to go [laughing]. It is what it is now. I say tit for tat, I think I got the worst of it because I’m running out there and they can get to me before our guys can get to me to help.”

• This already bizarre game got just a little stranger for the Red Sox in the fifth inning when Manny Ramirez had to be restrained in the dugout and separated from Kevin Youkilis after an exchange that may have stemmed from the earlier brawl. According to Amalie Benjamin:

Ramírez was a bit tardy getting to the bench-clearing brawl, not entering the fray until the bullpen residents had reached the mound, jogging out late with Bartolo Colon a few steps ahead of him.

Asked if that was part of the problem, Francona said, “I understand it was on TV. It was handled. We’ll move on. It wasn’t that big of a deal.”

• Boston wasn’t the only place with tempers flaring the week. In Los Angeles on Tuesday night, Matt Kemp and Yorvit Torrealba got into it after Kemp struck out swinging, causing benches and bullpens to clear in the Dodgers-Rockies game.