The Yankees were in the process of utterly crushing the Rays on Thursday afternoon when there were some fireworks. The real-time tweets were funny:
Holy cow. CC smoked Sucre and cost himself a half million dollars, got ejected from the game, then appeared to grab his crotch while facing the Rays dugout.
— Marc Carig (@MarcCarig) September 27, 2018
By hitting Sucre and getting tossed, Sabathia cost himself potential $500,000 incentive bonus (he was 2 innings short). But CC, who is already a leader in the clubhouse, just showed why his teammates love him. That’s a teammate backing up a teammate.
— Jack Curry (@JackCurryYES) September 27, 2018
CC Sabathia to the Rays' dugout: "That's for you, (insert Too $hort's favorite word)."
— Coley Harvey (@ColeyHarvey) September 27, 2018
Minor quibble: I'd have gone with "Jesse Pinkman's favorite word," but that's a matter of taste.
Holy smokes, though! Sabathia was two innings away from a $500,000 bonus and did this:
An 11-0 margin in the final game between the @RaysBaseball and the Yankees this season. Sure, go ahead and intentionally hit a person. Today's game is live on FOX Sports Sun and FOX Sports Go. #RaysUp pic.twitter.com/p4tPs06CHo
— FOX Sports Florida (@FOXSportsFL) September 27, 2018
Here's what led to it:
- Jake Bauers was hit by a Sabathia pitch on a 1-0 count (in a 7-0 game, mind you) in the bottom of the fifth.
- The first pitch in the top of the sixth from Andrew Kittredge was thrown at the head of Yankees catcher Austin Romine.
It's difficult to judge intent, but it certainly seems like Sabathia's pitch that hit Bauers was not intentional and Kittredge's pitch was pretty damn fishy.
Sabathia's long been known as a great teammate and, well, throwing away a half million dollars to get your teammates' back is certainly a story that will back up that reputation, even if he's already made over $250 million in his career.
