Kicking things up

High, hard slide into Akinori Iwamura gets blood boiling again between Rays, Yankees.

By Joe Smith, Times Staff Writer
Published March 13, 2008

Yankees and Rays players converge around second base after Shelley Duncan spiked Akinori Iwamura. There was some pushing, but no punches were thrown.
	[James Borchuck | Times]

ADVERTISEMENT Related links Photos: See the slide [James Borchuck | Times] Duncan spikes Iwamura on the inner right thigh, drawing blood. Iwamura was not seriously injured. [James Borchuck | Times] Yankees first-base coach Tony Pena tries to restrain Jonny Gomes after Gomes charged Shelley Duncan during the second-inning melee. Gomes was thrown out of the game.

ST. PETERSBURG - Yankees infielder Shelley Duncan sure turned up the intensity, all right.

Duncan's spike-high slide in the second inning Wednesday was called "borderline criminal" by Rays manager Joe Maddon after the "dirty play" riled both teams into a bench-clearing melee and sparked four ejections and potential suspensions.

With the AL East foes meeting again Saturday and in 18 games this season, some wondered whether the onfield scrum Rays All-Star Carl Crawford labeled "heated" would have any lingering effects.

"Hopefully it's under the rug," Rays outfielder Jonny Gomes said. "But to tell you the truth, I kind of doubt it. I just hope nobody gets hurt."

Duncan said he had no malicious intent when his spikes ripped a bloody gash on the inside of Rays second baseman Akinori Iwamura's right leg. Duncan, trying to stretch a single, said the throw beat him by several feet so "I went hard into (Iwamura's) glove."

Duncan was ejected on the spot. As the dugouts emptied, Gomes raced 150 feet from rightfield to push Duncan and had to be held back by several in the melee, which included mostly posturing and pushing; Gomes, along with Yankees coaches Kevin Long and Bobby Meacham, were tossed from the game. Gomes and Duncan could face suspensions, even into the regular season. Iwamura said through a translator he was mad for "two seconds" but glad he wasn't hurt.

Protecting a teammate "just comes second nature," Gomes said. "I was taught in T-ball all the way up, to always protect a teammate's back. I just acted how I act. I wasn't really trying to get a shot in on him. I probably could have done a lot of things worse."

Though Yankees manager Joe Girardi called it a "hard, aggressive slide," the Rays felt the play was premeditated, considering Duncan's comments earlier in the week. After Rays infielder Elliot Johnson lowered his shoulder into Yankees catcher Francisco Cervelli in Saturday's home-plate collision, breaking Cervelli's right wrist in the process, Duncan told reporters "we're going to go out there to match their intensity - or even exceed it."

"In Tampa (on Saturday), that play you saw at home plate was a good, hard baseball play," Maddon said. "What you saw today was the definition of a dirty play. There's no room for that in our game. It's contemptible, it's wrong, it's borderline criminal. And I cannot believe they did that."

The umpires, who declined comment afterward, appeared to be prepared for trouble, given the quick ejection of Yankees pitcher Heath Phillips in the first inning after an inside fastball grazed the left arm of Rays third baseman Evan Longoria. (Longoria and Phillips said it wasn't intentional.) Girardi said both teams were warned before the game after the Rays made MLB disciplinarian Bob Watson aware of a potential situation.

"I called Bob Watson (Tuesday) in light of Shelley Duncan's comments during the week to let him know from our standpoint this was a nonissue, and it only would become an issue if they made it one," Rays executive vice president Andrew Friedman said.

Gomes said Duncan's slide was "not the Yankee way." And there weren't many Yankees who came out quickly to defend Duncan. Meacham, the Yankees third-base coach, admitted "that was a high slide." Veteran catcher Jorge Posada said he had "nothing to say." Girardi, who wasted little time Saturday in labeling Johnson's play "uncalled for," said he wanted to take a "look at the replay (of Duncan's slide) to determine exactly what I think."

"It was a dirty play," Rays centerfielder B.J. Upton said. "It was just flat out dirty, period."

[Last modified March 13, 2008, 00:28:58]