Tampa’s tempers flare after 4 batters are hit
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Yankees can’t figure out how to beat the Rays, but they sure know how to hit them.
Yankee pitchers drilled four different Rays hitters in Sunday’s 7-4 loss at Tropicana Field, leading to both benches clearing twice — although no punches were thrown in either dustup.
And Tampa Bay outfielder Randy Arozarena believes Albert Abreu drilled him intentionally.
“It was a 3-1 count and I think it was on purpose,’’ Arozarena said through an interpreter.
Arozarena was also hit by Abreu in May and on Sunday, he noted that Yandy Diaz was hit by Jonathan Loaisiga on Friday and hasn’t played since. Additionally, Isaac Paredes was drilled in the head by a 95 mph sinker from Ian Hamilton in the fifth Sunday.
“I don’t know why,’’ Arozarena said. “It seems like they always want to hit us.”
On the season, the Yankees hit 12 Rays hitters, while Tampa Bay pitchers only hit a pair of Yankees — including Zack Littell hitting Oswald Peraza in the fourth inning Sunday.
Despite the eighth-inning fireworks, which continued after Arozarena and Abreu began yelling at each other after Arozarena stole third base later in the inning, the Rays didn’t want to retaliate.
“We got hit a lot,’’ Brandon Lowe said of the season series, which ended Sunday. “You never want your guys to get hit. If you can’t throw inside, don’t throw inside. But looking at it from a different view, it’s a last-place team. We don’t need to worry about it. We need to focus on what we need to do down the stretch.’’
The cellar-dwelling Yankees insisted none of the pitches were intentional and only Arozarena pointed to any intention.
Hamilton said he understood the Rays’ anger, but added, strangely, “If they want to come over here, they can come over here. I wish we had another game against them.”
But with the Rays headed to the playoffs and the Yankees toward an early offseason, the teams won’t meet again until next season.
“Every time I get hit from here on out, it’s gonna bother me because it’s something that occurs too many times,’’ Arozarena said.
Asked if he expected there to be any carryover in 2024, Arozarena said, “I don’t know if it will go on, but I’ve been here three years and if you look at videos, we get hit a lot.”
To Arozarena’s point, it was in 2020 when Aroldis Chapman angered the Rays by buzzing Mike Brosseau with a 101 mph pitch during a Sept. 1 game, prompting Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash to threaten afterwards, “I have a whole damn stable of pitchers that throw 98 miles per hour.”
Brosseau helped end the Yankees’ season later that year with a go-ahead homer off Chapman in the ALDS.
Cash wasn’t as dramatic on Sunday, saying only of his hitters, “They don’t like to be hit and there’s a level of frustration there.”
Abreu and Hamilton said the two pitches got away from them.
“I get their frustration,’’ Aaron Boone said. “Nothing’s happening on purpose. Some tempers got going.”
The two managers had a long conversation during the second skirmish, with Boone saying that Cash told Boone would be upset if the numbers were reversed.
“And I would be,’’ Boone said. “When our guys get hit, not on purpose, I don’t like it either. Today it boiled over.”