It seems as though Shelley Duncan was ready to play some hardball against the Rays today. Honestly, my first game of Spring Training missed and this is the one!!! By the way. Shelley Duncan is gangster.
Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News has the first-person account of the incident:
It didn’t take long for the bad blood between the Yankees and Rays to surface Wednesday, as a hit batsman and a hard slide sparked a bench-clearing incident in the second inning.
Heath Phillips, starting in place of an injured Andy Pettitte, was ejected with two outs in the first after brushing Rays third baseman Evan Longoria across the chest with a pitch.
Yankees manager Joe Girardi argued the ejection, but home plate umpire Chad Fairchild stood by his decision.
Shelley Duncan led off the top of the second with a base hit to left field, which he tried to stretch into a double. With the throw beating him easily to second, Duncan came sliding hard into second baseman Akinori Iwamura, leading with his spikes.
Second-base ump Charlie Reliford immediately ejected Duncan, who had made some thinly veiled comments a few days ago about ratcheting up the intensity of the spring games against the Rays after watching Tampa Bay infielder Elliot Johnson bowl over Yankees catcher Francisco Cervelli last weekend, fracturing Cervelli’s wrist.
With Duncan still on the ground following his hard slide, Rays right fielder Jonny Gomes sprinted in and jumped on Duncan, prompting both benches to clear. The two teams tangled around second base for a few minutes, though it didn’t appear any punches were thrown.
Duncan and Gomes were ejected, as were Yankees third-base coach Bobby Meacham and hitting coach Kevin Long.
