ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A funny thing happened at Tropicana Field in the top of the fifth inning Wednesday night. Alex Cobb lost his arm angle on a breaking pitch, and the ball plunked Chris Young.
No holy wars ensued. No lectures, no pointed fingers, no angry words. Young barely flinched before taking his base.
The Yankees were trailing 1-0 at the time. A couple of doubles later, they were leading, 2-1, on the way to winning, 3-2. Funny what can happen when you use something as simple as an HBP to get a W, rather than being PO’d. Fuel rather than fury. Amazing.
Joe Girardi is a terrific manager. He may well be one of the two or three best in baseball. His work with this year’s Yankees has been resplendent, and follows a 2013 when he might have done as good a day-to-day job as a manager can do.
There’s a “but” coming here somewhere, right?
But …
There are times when Girardi clearly believes the Yankees are both above the law and beyond reproach, that there is a Yankee Way — also known as “the right way” — and the Way Everyone Else Does It.
Tuesday night, Girardi railed about the Rays hitting Yankees batters five times. He rages with moral indignity at such things. He believes — no, he knows — he is right about these things. And he is not a good actor, so he cannot mask his contempt.
“If you’re going to throw inside,” he sneered, “then learn how to throw inside.”
He said, “We’re not pin cushions.”
He said, “This is not practice. This is guys’ livelihoods.”
Girardi’s thesis was clearly code for something else: He believes the Rays are pitching with nefarious purpose. Maybe that doesn’t mean they are head-hunting, but Girardi’s reaction implies he thinks they are approaching this from a dangerous place. OK. Fine. So let’s look at those five hit batsmen, in reverse order:
Derek Jeter, Tuesday: There isn’t a chance in the world this was intentional. Not a prayer. As even Steve Geltz, the Tampa pitcher who threw the offending pitch, said: “That’s Derek Jeter. I’m not going to hit Derek Jeter.”
Chase Headley, Sept. 11: This was frightening, yes, a ball that nearly fractured his jaw and nearly concussed him — and Joe Maddon was 100 percent wrong when he described the impact as “grazing.” But the Rays were clinging to a ninth-inning lead — which they ultimately lost, partly because Jake McGee was so obviously shaken by the devastating damage done by his pitch.
Jeter, Sept. 11: Again, it’s Jeter. And also, when Brad Boxberger hit him in the eighth, it brought the tying run to the plate. Whatever you think of Maddon, he still plays to win every game, even with his team out of the race.
Brian McCann, Sept. 10: Tie game, fifth inning, and McCann wound up un-tying it when Mark Teixeira followed with a triple off Jake Odorizzi. Again: No shot that was intentional. None.
Headley, Sept. 9: Who knows what lurks in someone’s heart, but Chris Archer was cruising with a three-run lead. After hitting Headley leading off the fifth, he allowed four straight hits and was lucky to keep a 4-3 lead by inning’s end.
So there’s that.
And there’s this: Is this really a path Girardi wants to pursue?
After all, it was last April that Cesar Cabral hit three Rays in a four-batter sequence, earning an ejection. That night, Girardi — who Tuesday scoffed that the Rays’ wildness could be a question of command — fumed about the ejection: “He just clearly had no command. It’s unfortunate. We’re not trying to hit anyone there and I feel bad that we hit three people there. But you just got to move on and then you go from there.”
Translated: Trust us. Blame you.
It’s a terribly slippery slope. After all, two years ago, CC Sabathia knocked Nick Markakis out for the year in September by breaking his thumb with an inside fastball — which certainly helped the Yankees a few weeks later when the teams met in the ALDS. If Buck Showalter had accused Girardi of planning that, it would have been dead wrong. But no more irresponsible than what Girardi accused the Rays of Tuesday.
There were no more hard feelings after Cobb struck Young, which helped the Yankees win a baseball game. And it meant that for the year, the evil, bloodthirsty Rays had hit nine Yankees. Or exactly the number of times the angelic innocents from Gotham had hit the Rays.