Grant Balfour lashes out at Rays fans after they ‘booed’ him

By Melissa Felkins | May 23, 2014

May 22, 2014; St. Petersburg, FL, USA; Tampa Bay Rays relief pitcher Grant Balfour (50) reacts during the ninth inning against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field. Tampa Bay Rays defeated the Oakland Athletics 5-2 in eleven innings. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports /

Grant Balfour had some things to say to the Tampa Bay Rays fans who booed him after a blown save on Thursday night. Balfour entered the game against the Oakland Athletics in the ninth inning with a 1-0 lead, but ended up allowing an RBI double to Yoenis Cespedes that tied the game. In response to his blown save, the fans booed Balfour and the Rays.

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“The fans can boo me and all that (stuff), but that’s fine,” Balfour told reporters after the game, via ESPN.com. “It’s not going to help me out. It’s not going to help the team do anything out there when you do that (stuff). The feeling is, the team’s behind you and everybody’s behind you — the crowd, the whole nine yards. Things are going to go right.

“But when you start pulling that (stuff), it’s not a good vibe. The team’s pulling for the team, so the fans got to be pulling for the team. Everybody’s got to be pulling for the team. You can’t be back and forth like that. That (stuff) doesn’t work. So I’ll just walk away positive from it. It’s a good win. A much-needed win.”

Balfour is known to get heated up both on and off the field. Him lashing out back at the fans, whether he is right or not, is probably not going to go over well with some of them. When you couple that with his 5.98 ERA this season and 18 walks in just 18.1 innings pitched, it can be assumed that fans are not going to be too happy about his comments. Perhaps Balfour should focus more on doing the things that don’t get him booed rather than complaining about it.