FORT MYERS, Fla. — Bobby Valentine was expected to spice up the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry and he hasn’t disappointed.
Thursday night, after calling for a suicide squeeze to forge a 4-4 tie in the bottom of the ninth inning, the Red Sox manager was dismayed the game was called because Yankees manager Joe Girardi said his team had no pitching left.
“They had plenty of pitching,” Valentine said. “Probably too long of a [bus] ride. They could have known that going in.”
Valentine said he was upset he got Clayton Mortensen up to pitch the 10th before he was told the game had been called.
“I don’t think that was very courteous,” he said.
Girardi said he needed to save his pitching because the Yankees play split-squad games today.
“I don’t care about not playing,” Valentine said. “It’s just, why do I have to warm up my pitcher who’s trying to make a team come in in a tie game against the Yankees and maybe help him make a team and instead he has to walk off the mound and take a shower?”
Valentine said he was more irked about the way it was handled: “Usually you go over and say, ‘I don’t have any more. I have 10.’ I don’t know. I haven’t been around in a long time. Joe knows better than I. I guess you just walk off the field. … I don’t set protocol. I’m learning.
“I’m sure [Girardi] didn’t do anything deliberate,” Valentine said. “It’s just, I have to answer to a pitcher who is trying to make the team.”