Pitch pout

Fiery Rays give Judge ribbing in HBP exchange

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Rays proved a couple of points on Saturday. They are not going to back down from the Yankees — even if it means their starting pitcher gets ejected after hitting a Bombers star with a pitch.

That is what happened to Matt Andriese, who plunked Aaron Judge in the ribs with the first pitch of the sixth inning during the Rays’ 9-5 pounding of the Yankees and Masahiro Tanaka at Tropicana Field.

An inning earlier, Yankees reliever Tommy Layne had hit Corey Dickerson in the back of the shoulder after Dickerson had homered his first two times up against Tanaka.

“I wasn’t expecting it,’’ Dickerson said of getting hit. “I was looking for a good pitch to hit and he hit me. The only thing I didn’t like about it was where it was located. If it was on purpose and he hit me, that’s OK. I just took my base. But it was towards my head.’’

Dickerson, who said any other location would not have mattered, is not cool with pitches near his head.

“That’s livelihood you are messing with,” he said. “I really can’t read mind [Layne’s] or speculate. I just try to play this game the right way, try to play this game hard and sometimes you get hit, sometimes it’s on purpose some times it’s not.’’

Dickerson said the Rays look out for one another.

“We really bonded well since spring training,’’ he said. “This is as close as this team has been since I’ve been here. The guys in this clubhouse are great. These are guys you want to hang with.’’

Andriese said of his pitch, which hit Judge in the ribs, “I was just trying to go inside and that was it.’’ Rays manager Kevin Cash used the old “ball got away,’’ line.

Judge, who had homered and doubled his first two times up, seemed undisturbed.

“That’s baseball,” he said. “They’re going to get guys. I was the one that got hit and that was part of it. I was going to take my base, it’s part of the game. I said, ‘ OK, take off my guard and go to first.’ It was a good spot.’’

Andriese wasn’t the only one tossed. In the bottom of the fifth, Yankees pitching coach Larry Rothschild and manager Joe Girardi were ejected by home plate umpire Scott Barry, who said they had argued balls and strikes.

Andriese said he was “very surprised’’ he got ejected, pointing out there were no warnings from the umpires.

“I was just trying to make a pitch inside and that was it.’’

He said of the Rays: “We play with some fire. We have a real tight-knit group here. We are not a big-name team, we have to make a name for ourselves somehow. We’re kind of doing that now. The AL East is pretty tough, we are going to go out there and fight a day at a time.’’