Alex Rodriguez gets beaned by Red Sox sterter Ryan Dempster. (Getty Images)
Boston right-hander Ryan Dempster was suspended five games and fined an undisclosed amount for “intentionally throwing at and hitting” Alex Rodriguez on Sunday.
If Dempster doesn’t appeal the suspension, it would begin Tuesday, but with the Red Sox scheduled to have off-days on Thursday and Monday, Dempster may not even have to miss a start.
Yankees manager Joe Girardi was also fined, having been ejected following Rodriguez’s at-bat, after arguing with home plate umpire Brian O’Nora that Dempster should have been ejected.
“I’ll be really disappointed if he’s not suspended where he misses a start,” Girardi said after Sunday’s game. “They have a lot of days off and you could finagle something, like if he took the suspension tomorrow, if he got suspended, he wouldn’t miss a start. It has to cost him something.”
Girardi looked frustrated when he learned of Dempster’s suspension following the Yankees’ 8-4 win over the Blue Jays, but did not speak out again.
“I think I made my feelings pretty clear then,” Girardi said when asked about Sunday’s comment.
The penalties were announced by Joe Garagiola, Jr., Senior Vice President of Standards & Operations for MLB.
Though Dempster denied hitting Rodriguez on purpose, Girardi felt that Dempster needed to be suspended so there wouldn’t be an “open season” on hitting the Yankees third baseman. The manager said he had not been interviewed by Major League Baseball about the incident, which resulted in warnings to both benches and eventually Girardi’s ejection.
“You just can’t throw at somebody because you don’t like him or disagree with the way something’s being handled,” Girardi said, referring to Rodriguez’s playing while he appeals a 211-game suspension for allegedly using PEDs. “You just can’t take things into your own hands. It’s not right.”
Rodriguez started the first game of Tuesday’s doubleheader against the Blue Jays and Girardi was unsure whether he would be in the lineup for the nightcap, since Eduardo Nunez might not be available for either game.
He insisted that no one in the front office was trying to impact Rodriguez’s playing time.
“I have never had any instruction from them,” Girardi said. “I have never been told to play him or not play him. The lineup is mine [and] how to treat my players is mine.”