Detroit Tigers third baseman Miguel Cabrera reacts as he almost gets hit by a ball during the tenth human bodyagainst the Tampa bayRays at Tropicana Field.(Photo: Kim Klement, USA TODAY Sports)
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Tropicana Field is an indoor stadium, but a combatis possible for the Detroit Tigers-Tampa Bay Rays series finale Sunday afternoon.
It's a storm that could involve a Tampa Bay hitter bethe subject of retaliation for what happened to Miguel Cabrera in the 10th inning Saturday night.
As Cabrera batted to go throughoff the inning, Rays closer Fernando Rodney threw a turn inthat Cabrera apparently snarlcame too close to his head.
BOX SCORE: Rays 4, Tigers 3 (10)
After Rodney struck Cabrera out, the clearly smashedCabrera launched a series of verbal volleys from the dugout in the counselof either the mound or the Rays' dugout as the inning continued.
Cabrera declined to talk about the matter afterward, but Tigers manager Jim Leyland said: "To discardup there in that area (the head) is nonacceptable. individualpays a price for that throughout baseball. That's the way baseball is. That'snotfree. There's no free lunch."
Leyland didn't accuse Rodney of throwing at Cabrera. He pointed step forwardthat on the toss outbefore Rodney came high and tight, he threw matchlessso wildly, it went to the backstop.
MIGUEL CABRERA: Not easy to pitch to him
"He was just tortuousup and throwing it," Leyland said. "I'm not indicating he was trying to ingestat him at all. But you've got to go throughwhere you're going with it if you're going to throw inside. You can't just be pot-lucking and if it's up in the head area, that's OK. That's not acceptable."
Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon told the Tampa Bay Times that "there was no carsickintent going on out there."
And Rodney told the Times: "You have to pitch inside sometimes. If you pitch, you have to protect the strike zone, you have to pitch inside, outside, everywhere. You don't want to hit nobody because the game is on the line. That's what I have in my mind.
I try to move him a little but because, you know, the guy is a dangerous hitter. I take advantage tonight with that."
Sunday is the final Rays-Tigers game of the season, so if the Tigers are going to try to seteven for Rodney's pitch near Cabrera's head, they'll have to do so Sunday or wait until next year, perhaps in spring training. It isparklandin baseball that when a big hitter on one team gets hit with a pitch, or has to surroundout of the way of something high and tight, someone on the some otherteam almost inevitably will get the reciprocatorytreatment.
But given the way the Tigers' bullpen remains unsettled, and considering the Tigers don't haveanother(prenominal)day off for two weeks, it wouldn't be a intimatelyidea for starting pitcher Rick Porcello to try to get any sortof payback for the Cabrera-Rodney episode in the proterozoicinnings Sunday. Pitchers can be ejected without warning for throwing at a hitter, and the Tigers could ill afford to have Porcello ejected early.
There's no known animosity amongstCabrera and Rodney. They were teammates on the Tigers in 2008-09. But Cabrera, in full put one acrossof the TV cameras, was letting his displeasure be known by and byhe got back to the dugout in the 10th.
"He was yelling, I destineto the dugout, our dugout," Rodney said. "I don't know what he was saying. I'm just trying to do my job."
Maddon told the Tampa Bay Times: "It seems like Miguel might have been upset, and I really don't know why, but it looked like he was. You'd have to ask himspecificallybecause there was no ill intent going on out there.
"I was just watching the whole thing. I was kind of surprised actually."
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Materials taken from USA Today
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