Boom Goes the Dynamite
By Blake VandeBunte • Aug 12th, 2009 • Category: 2009 Season, Boston Red Sox, Kevin Youkilis, Rick PorcelloI love baseball fights. I always have. Things got chippy right off the bat last night in Boston and it culminated with Rick Porcello plunking the ugliest man alive (Kevin Youkilis).
Youkilis proceded to charge the mound and hurled his helmet at Porcello. Porcello retreated and right as Youkilis made his lunge, Porcello moved to the side and took Youkilis to the ground. It was a pretty impressive move considering that Youkilis had all of the momentum and Porcello was retreating. Both benches cleared, but it wasn’t too messy. The rest of the game was completed without incident. Except for the Tigers loss.
I’m guess that Porcello will be suspended for five or six games. That’s a pretty standard suspension for a starting pitcher who hits a batter in this kind of tense situation. The suspension is meant to make the pitcher miss one start, which may not be such a bad thing for Porcello.
The bummer of the whole thing, aside from the loss, was that the Tigers had to go to their bullpen way too early and it forced Chris Lambert into action which is almost never a good thing. The Tigers have now lost the first two games of this big four-game series and have to face Josh Beckett. Ugh. It’s not looking good.
For more on the fight, check out:
- Cutoff Man touches on how the Tigers chances for a win last night went out the window when Porcello was forced out.
- Detroit Tigers Weblog says that the umpiring crew was way out line for tossing Porcello.
- In his game recap at Mack Avenue Tigers, Kurt writes that it was pretty clear that Youkilis just lost his cool and made the situation a lot bigger than it needed to be.
- Tiger Geist has a humorous take on the brawl.
- In his blog, Keith Law notes that Miguel Cabrera has been hit twice already in this series and Red Sox pitchers have not been disciplined in any way.
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I was really impressed with Porcello. I didn’t get to see the game so when I heard that Youkilis charged Porcello, I was expecting a total beat down. Then I saw the replay and was surprised to see him throw Youk to the ground.
From what I saw, Youkilis was out of line for going all postal on Porcello. It was a fair plunking by Porcello for the Cabrera getting hit both nights.
Not that this helps Porcello’s case, but I think I heard the stat that he had only hit one batter coming into last night. One can reasonably assume he meant to bean Youk, but we can also conclude that Porcello has above average control as well.