Tigers, Yankees downplay hit-by-pitches

Tigers, Yankees downplay hit-by-pitches
Bonderman plunks Gardner; Cabrera struck in ribs by Gaudin

By Jason Beck / MLB.com

08/19/10 12:34 AM ET

NEW YORK -- On the same day the Tigers put Carlos Guillen on the disabled list with a severely bruised left knee suffered on Brett Gardner's slide Monday night, they saw MVP candidate Miguel Cabrera take a fastball in the ribs.

In between, Jeremy Bonderman's first pitch of the night hit Gardner in his right leg, a little below his knee. After the pitch to Cabrera, Detroit manager Jim Leyland got into an argument with home-plate umpire Eric Cooper that was caught on the Tigers' local broadcast.

If there was tension in either clubhouse over Wednesday night's events, they were doing their best not to show it.

"I was very calm the whole game," said Leyland, whose third ejection of the season capped one of many differences he has had with umpires this year.

"I don't know. I don't care," Cabrera said when asked whether he felt he was hit on purpose.

"I don't know if it was [intentional] or not. That's not for me to judge. It doesn't really matter," Gardner said of Bonderman's pitch.

"I think guys can tell when you're doing it on purpose. I didn't," said Yanks reliever Chad Gaudin, whose eighth-inning pitch hit Cabrera. "This is baseball. It happens."

Still, what nearly happened could've been much worse.

"It almost got very ugly," Tigers infielder Ramon Santiago said.

The roots of this eventful evening date back to the last play of Monday's series opener. Trailing, 3-1, the Yankees had the bases loaded, and had Tigers closer Jose Valverde struggling to throw strikes. Derek Jeter hit a grounder to short that started a double play to end the game. The final out came from a relay throw from Guillen, who fired to first as Gardner slid hard into his left leg.

Guillen limped off the field as the Tigers celebrated their win. Neither he nor Leyland initially felt like the slide was dirty, but Guillen hedged on that opinion a day later.

"I saw a replay when I got [to the hotel], and it looked different," Guillen said Tuesday.

Gardner wasn't saying one way or the other Wednesday.

"Maybe so," he said. "I don't know if it was intentional or not. If it was, so be it. If it wasn't, so be it. Obviously if there were some hard feelings from what happened the other night, I would have thought something would have happened [Tuesday]."

The diagnosis on Guillen's knee changed, too. What was initially thought to be a day-to-day injury turned out to be a severe bone bruise that will keep Guillen out two to three weeks, adding to the long list of Tigers injuries this season.

Nothing happened in Tuesday's game, but when Bonderman took the mound to face Yankees leadoff man Gardner and begin his outing Wednesday, he immediately put the incident back in the spotlight. His first pitch of the night hit Gardner.

Cooper immediately warned both teams, giving him the right to eject both a pitcher and his manager if any other incidents ensued.

Bonderman, who served a three-game suspension at the start of the season for hitting Minnesota's Delmon Young in the final days of last season, moved on when asked about intent. Was he surprised when warnings were issued?

"It's part of the game," Bonderman said.

Gardner downplayed it.

"If they want to hit me and put me on base, I'm happy with it, as long as I don't get hurt," Gardner said.

Leyland shut down the question of intent.

"Next question," he said.

If it was intentional, it might've been Bonderman's best-located pitch of the inning. Back-to-back home runs from Mark Teixeira and Robinson Cano put New York ahead, and nothing further happened until the eighth.

Gaudin entered the inning with a 9-4 lead and Cabrera, who homered twice earlier, leading off. His 1-1 pitch rode in on Cabrera and hit him in his upper right ribs. Cabrera initially looked shaken, but took his base. Gaudin, meanwhile, stayed in the game.

That drew Leyland out of the dugout and into a heated argument with Cooper. He wasn't arguing that Gaudin should be automatically ejected since there had been warnings. That's "not necessarily" the rule, he said after the game.

"I think it's still the discretion of the umpire to make the decision whether he was thrown at or not," Leyland said. "And in this particular case, Eric made that decision, which I respect. I do not agree with it."

Gaudin said he didn't know there was a warning, and didn't throw at Cabrera intentionally.

"It got away," he said. "I was trying to throw a sinker in and it got away. Simple as that."

Yankees manager Joe Girardi, who asked his pitcher about it, supported him and used his club's bullpen situation as evidence.

"I point-blank asked Chad, 'Did you do that on purpose?' He said, 'No,'" Girardi said. "I feel bad that it got to that, because on a night that I don't want to use [David] Robertson or [Mariano Rivera], I've got to get them both in the game."

Cooper declined comment to a pool reporter after the game, saying his version of the events will be in his report to the Commissioner's Office.

That report will include his ejection of Leyland at inning's end as Leyland continued to argue from the dugout. That sent the Tigers' manager out of the dugout and back at Cooper. At one point, the FSN Detroit broadcast picked up Leyland's argument on its field microphone, and suggested Leyland was arguing a double standard.

"They're going to the playoffs," Leyland was caught saying. "I'm not going anywhere."

Leyland wouldn't get into a discussion about it. Still, his comments about Cabrera's night were telling.

"He's great, obviously," Leyland said. "There's no question about that. We just have to make sure that he stays a great player."

Tigers long reliever Enrique Gonzalez, who finished off the seventh, stayed in for the eighth to face the top of the Yankees' order, starting with Gardner. He threw a pitch behind Jeter and another inside on Teixeira, but never hit anyone. Nothing happened.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Bryan Hoch contributed to this report. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Last Updated: August 19. 2010 10:37AM
Yankees 9, Tigers 5
Miguel Cabrera hit by pitch, Jim Leyland furious as Tigers lose second straight
Tom Gage / The Detroit News

New York -- Does it carry over? Or is it done?

The Tigers and Yankees play again today. If bygones become bygones, peace won't be problem.

If not, who knows?

Beginning with the opening pitch, the Tigers and Yankees threw at one another Wednesday in a game the Yankees won 9-5.

Jeremy Bonderman hit Brett Gardner with the first pitch -- more than just coincidence on the same day Carlos Guillen went on the 15-day disabled list because of the badly bruised left knee he suffered on Gardner's hard slide Monday night.

Bonderman grinned when asked if he threw at Gardner.

"Next question," he said.

Manager Jim Leyland didn't grin, however, the three times he replied with "next question" when asked about the eighth-inning events.

And he wasn't smiling when a turned-up field microphone picked up his words to plate umpire Eric Cooper that "somebody is going to get hurt."

Cooper warned both sides after Bonderman's pitch. That doesn't mean he had to eject the next pitcher who hit a batter.

So when Chad Gaudin hit Miguel Cabrera in the eighth after the Yankees took a five-run lead, Cooper didn't eject him.

Leyland said he respected Cooper's decision, but didn't agree with it. He argued on the field, squawked from the dugout, and when Leyland went back out to continue his conversation after the top of the eighth, the ump ejected him.

In the bottom of the eighth, Enrique Gonzalez threw behind Derek Jeter, but didn't hit him. He also threw several inside pitches, but no hit batters.

Suffice to say, from the pitches that hit batters, to the pitches the batters hit -- there were six home runs, including two by Cabrera -- there seemed to be a lit fuse to this game.

Nothing ever really exploded. Dugouts didn't empty, and there weren't even that many angry glares -- if any -- but that doesn't mean the two teams walked away as pals.

Then again, these aren't teams in similar situations. The Yankees are coping with the tension of trying to stay in first place. The Tigers are merely trying to get back to winning more games than they lose.

No wonder the same field microphone that picked up Leyland's words that somebody could get hurt also picked up him telling Cooper "they're going to the (bleeping) playoffs. I ain't going anywhere."

The one who really kept the peace was Cabrera, who took a hard pitch in the ribs. He didn't charge the mound. It never looked like he would.

"It wasn't good for me," he said of the pitch that hit him.

But he didn't make matters worse by overreacting. When asked if he thought Gaudin purposely threw at him, Cabrera said. "I don't know. I don't care."

As for the game, Bonderman was hit hard. After hitting Gardner, not all his pitches were thrown where he wanted.

The first pitch eventually cost him, because Gardner was on base when Mark Teixeira reached the seats one out later with a two-run home run.

Robinson Cano followed that with a solo shot.

The Tigers countered with three home runs. Cabrera hit a no-doubter into the seats in left for his 29th home run.

His 30th, on a 0-2 pitch from starter Dustin Moseley in the fourth cut the Yankees lead to a run. Hitting homers when the count is stacked against him is nothing new for Cabrera.

He has more career home runs on 0-2 counts than he does on 2-0 counts (11-7).

Curtis Granderson connected off Bonderman in the fifth, his second in two nights against his former teammates.

From The Detroit News: http://www.detnews.com/article/20100819/SPORTS0104/8190425/Miguel-Cabrera-hit-by-pitch--Jim-Leyland-furious-as-Tigers-lose-second-straight#ixzz0x4ROHv2U

Leyland 'embarrassed' remarks made it to air

By Jason Beck / MLB.com

08/19/10 2:29 PM ET

NEW YORK -- Tigers manager Jim Leyland clearly wasn't happy with the way Wednesday's warnings and ejection unfolded. He wasn't exactly happy with himself, either.

While Leyland declined to publicly criticize home-plate umpire Eric Cooper for not ejecting the Yankees' Chad Gaudin, saying only that he disagreed with Cooper's opinion that Gaudin didn't hit Miguel Cabrera on purpose, his on-field argument with Cooper could be heard on television. The on-field microphone that FSN Detroit had placed behind home plate caught much of it, including some of the harshest words.

"They're going to the ... playoffs," Leyland could be heard telling Cooper on Wednesday night, "and I'm not going anywhere."

There was some language sprinkled in that Leyland doesn't like to be heard saying.

"I feel embarrassed," Leyland said Thursday morning. "I don't think anybody's always proud of the language you use when you're in the heat of battle like that. You're probably more embarrassed. I mean, you know [the microphone] is there, but when you get ticked off, you can't say, 'Well, I've got to be a good boy because there's a mic over here.' You're a little ticked off.

"So I'm a little embarrassed by it. Sometimes there's people sitting by the dugout. You wish you wouldn't have said certain words. I guess you apologize for it, but you don't apologize for it. It's embarrassing sometimes."

Leyland called it "a no-win situation" to criticize umpires and officials in the media.

well, remember also the Yankees officials (upms, that is)...that's one reason they yankees get so many breaks, in my opinion. They're good, but sometimes you wonder.
As for the way i'm feeling after this game today - - can the Tigers win at all?