Hot-headed Jorge Posada’s temper cost him a suspension and a fine, punishment for touching off Tuesday’s bench-clearing brawl. Posada and Toronto relief pitcher Jesse Carlson got $3,000 fines and both got three-game suspensions, as did Yankee reserve Shelly Duncan.
Posada and Carlson’s original four-game bans were reduced on the condition they not appeal, so both began their suspensions last night. That’s wise in Posada’s case, so that he doesn’t risk missing games vs. the Angels and Red Sox next week; Joe Girardi likely would’ve preferred Posada show that kind of common sense a day earlier.
While Girardi didn’t exactly take his volatile catcher to task, he had no qualms saying he wished Posada hadn’t reacted the way he did, and the manager wasn’t particularly proud of Posada’s behavior.
“I’m not proud of [Tuesday], but it’s something we have to deal with. We’ve dealt with it before,” said Girardi. An ex-catcher, Girardi was asked if he expected more self-control from a 38-year-old veteran backstop. His answer was a mild rebuke or indictment.
“The best way to answer that is you always have extremely high expectations for your players,” Girardi said. “But just like a husband, a brother, a parent, sometimes we wish we could do things a little bit different. . . . It happens. You’re not proud of it, but it happens.”
Posada wasn’t in the Yankees clubhouse before last night’s game against Toronto, and didn’t address the media. But he’d made his presence felt in Tuesday night’s 10-4 loss.
After Mark Melancon hit Toronto second baseman Aaron Hill in the back in the top of the eighth, in the bottom of the frame Carlson threw behind Posada, who glared at him and warned, “You don’t want to do that!” Benches emptied but order was quickly restored.
Then Posada instigated another incident later in the inning.
After scoring on Brett Gardner’s double, Posada elbowed Carlson as he crossed the plate. Home plate ump Jim Joyce ejected Posada, Carlson cursed at him, and a brawl broke out. Posada swung at Carlson, then grabbed him by the shirt and dragged him into a rapidly growing mass of bodies.
“No. 1, I wouldn’t have liked to see Aaron Hill hit. No. 2, [I wish] there was no extracurricular activities after Jorge got thrown behind. I don’t want to see my players thrown behind,” said Girardi. “And the last thing, I want to see is a fight.”
But that’s exactly what they got, and Duncan made it worse, forcing his way into the fray to throw punches. He chose to fight on Tuesday and was fighting his suspension yesterday, so he was available to play last night.
No players were seriously hurt, but Posada had a stiff neck yesterday, according to Girardi. Carlson ended up with a walnut-sized welt on his forehead, crew chief Derryl Cousins was hit with a bottle thrown from the stands, and Girardi got a cut over his left eye and took an elbow to the left ear — from one of his own players, he insisted, not Toronto’s John McDonald.
Girardi also acknowledged that protecting one’s teammates — which is exactly how he viewed Carlson’s actions — will always be part of baseball. That means, unfortunately, so will fights.
“That’s part of baseball, but that’s a part of baseball I don’t like. No pun intended, but it’s a black eye to baseball when there’s a fight or incident like that,” Girardi said. “Somebody can really get hurt. You can jeopardize someone’s career. You can jeopardize a season. So to me, I don’t like it. But it happens; and you have to deal with it.”
Yankees hitting coach Kevin Long and reliever Edwar Ramirez got fined, as did Toronto catcher Rod Barajas.