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June 5, 2008
BOSTON -- The skirmishes between Coco Crisp and the Tampa Bay Rays on Wednesday night erupted into full-scale war Thursday night.
Rays starter James Shields hit Crisp in the thigh with the first pitch he threw him as Crisp led off the bottom of the second inning. Crisp charged the mound and a bench-clearing fight ensued. And unlike your typical baseball fights, this one lasted a while and some serious punches were thrown.
Crisp ducked under a roundhouse right from Shields as he reached the mound, and hit the Tampa Bay pitcher in the shoulder/neck area with a right jab before he found himself buried under a pile of Rays. He was tackled and taken to the ground by catcher Dioner Navarro, and Jonny Gomes, Akinori Iwamora and Carl Crawford all jumped in and threw punches at Crisp as he was pinned by Navarro.
In a separate pile, Shields was taken down by some members of the Red Sox. Third-base coach DeMarlo Hale was front-and-center in this skirmish.
When order was finally restored, Crisp, Shields and Gomes were ejected. Discipline is likely from the American League.
Grant Balfour replaced Shields as Tampa Bay's pitcher, and both teams were warned that further incidents would result in more ejections.
The Red Sox lead the Rays, 4-1, in the top of the third.
Posted by Art Martone 
at 6:52 PM | Permalink
Nation | June 5, 2008 7:46 PM link
Good for Crisp. His slide was blown way out of line by a couple of douche announcers and tampa remains the punching bag of the Sox and the Yankees. i only wish Francona would have gotten a hit on Madden.