A bunt drops some spice into tepid rivalry
NEW YORK — In the annals of the sometimes ferocious New York Yankees-Boston Red Sox rivalry, there have been some memorable matchups and a few brawls.
Pedro Martinez versus Don Zimmer. Alex Rodriguez versus Jason Varitek. Yankees reliever Jeff Nelson and outfielder Karim Garcia versus a member of the Fenway Park grounds crew.
And now, C.C. Sabathia versus Eduardo Nunez?
The very idea of the 6-foot-6, 300-pound Sabathia squaring off against Nunez, who is generously listed as 6 feet and 195 pounds, is hard to imagine. But on Friday, neither backed off his position from Thursday night, when Sabathia called the Red Sox and Nunez “weak” for bunting on him in the first inning, and Nunez replied by essentially saying, “Get used to it.” With the feud adding a new entrant — former Red Sox outfielder Jim Rice, who on Thursday implied that Sabathia’s considerable girth might be the source of his irritation with opponents who bunt — there is some fresh bad blood in a rivalry that had grown tepid in recent years.
“What is he talking about? Bunting is part of the game,” Rice said on the Red Sox’s postgame show after the Yankees’ 6-2 victory Thursday night. “You try to get on the base any way you can. If you tell him to leave some of that chicken, that doughnut and that burger weight, maybe his leg will be OK, that he can field that baseball. That’s just stupid.”
In the Yankees’ clubhouse before Friday’s game, Sabathia refused to engage Rice.
Sabathia will not be facing Rice who retired in 1989. But even though the Yankees and the Red Sox will not play again in 2017 after this four-game series concludes Sunday, there is a possibility that Sabathia will face Nunez again.
He should not expect any change in tactics from Nunez, who was his teammate from 2010-13.
“He was one of my best teammates, and I feel sorry that he has a bad knee,” Nunez said. “But if I have to bunt again, I do it. I have to do my job. That’s just the game. It’s nothing personal.”
Sabathia, 37, has had trouble fielding his position for the past several seasons because of a degenerating right knee, on which he has had several operations. He said his anger — he shouted obscenities at the Red Sox’s bench as he left the mound — was not directed so much at Nunez but at the bunt, which he considers a cheap way to get on base.
“It doesn’t matter who’s bunting or who I’m playing,” he said, adding that his anger on the topic is universal. “We could be playing a Little League game. My son bunts on me, I’m going to cuss him out. That’s just me. I’ve always been like that.”