by Brad Sylvester

Created on: June 06, 2008   Last Updated: June 08, 2008

June 5th, 2008 -
In one of the most bizarre games of the season, The Boston Red Sox ended up winning over the Tampa Bay Rays, but were literally beaten up by the Tampa Bay Rays Thursday night. Coco Crisp charged the mound after being hit by a pitch and a bench-clearing brawl ensued. This was not one of those "fights" where the combatants stand around and let their teammates hold them back type of brawls, this was an all out slugfest. Amazingly, a second fight broke out later as the usually easy-going Manny Ramirez went after Kevin Youkilis with very bad intent. Fortunately, he was restrained by the coaches and other players and escorted down the runway before any further damage occurred.

The fireworks Thursday stemmed from two incidents in the previous night's game. First, as Coco Crisp was headed to second base with a headfirst slide, Jason Bartlett dropped his knee down to block the bag. Dropping the knee when a player is diving headfirst is an effective way to block the base, but it vastly increases the risk of injury to the runner. It is easy to jam fingers, sprain thumbs, or come up with a worse injury as the runner's hands and face collide with the knee and shin suddenly dropping into his path. Coco spent a few seconds informing Bartlett of his displeasure right after the play.

Later in Wednesday's game Coco again found himself on first base. He decided to steal second and as he did, he slid high and hard, taking out the second baseman Akinori Iwamura in retaliation for the earlier play. I'm sure Coco was hoping that the shortstop, Bartlett would be covering, but he had no qualms about sending his message with a target of opportunity.

After these incidents, most baseball insiders expected the Rays to take some retribution during Thursday's game, most likely in the form of a pitch thrown at Coco Crisp at some point during the game. That's exactly what happened during Crisp's first at-bat of the night in the second inning. A message pitch from The Rays' starter, James Shields, caught him on thigh. Crisp appeared as though he would calmly head to first base, but suddenly charged the mound. Shields loaded up a big right hand, but Coco saw it coming and pulled his head back out the way. A punch from Crisp glanced of Shields' jaw before he was tackled from behind by the catcher, Dioner Navarro. Ordinarily, that's about it for a baseball fight. The benches will clear and a few hotheads will posture threateningly and then everybody goes back to sit down. This time

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