Rays’ David Price explains his actions
Tampa Bay Rays pitcher David Price explained what happened on Friday prior to him and Boston Red Sox’s David Ortiz getting into a verbal altercation.
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It all started when Price threw a pitch which hit Ortiz. Emotions rose and both benches were told to calm down. Red Sox manager John Farrell was ejected from the game with two more of the coaches to follow later on. Price then went on to hit Mike Carp. Once Carp was hit, he immediately dropped the bat and started slinging words towards Price.
"“I completely understand how mad he was,” Price said. “When he was walking up to the plate in his next at-bat, I just gave him a head nod. It’s the same thing I did in Tampa. He was coming up to the plate after his first at-bat in the first and I just told him ‘my bad.’ He gave me a head nod as well. And I completely get it.”"
It wasn’t the first time Price had hit Carp with a pitch either.
"“I absolutely get it, especially with Carp,” Price said. “And they’ve all been in the same region. I’ve extended apologies to him both times before. That’s not something I’m trying to do. I had six lefties in the lineup today. I wanted to throw my fastball in and wasn’t able to do it.”"
The two teams have an intense rivalry as it is and the hitting batters just intensifies things. Price assures that there was no intention on either hit and that he is simply working on his pitches.
"“I 100 percent understand his frustration,” Price said. “Obviously that’s not the pitch I’m trying to throw, that’s not the pitch, if I was trying to hit him, that’s nowhere near the region it’s going to be. I didn’t mean to do that.”"