Girardi Defends Duncan

From the New York Post:

"Shelley told me that he tried to break up the play," Girardi said. "I saw a similar slide that he made in Toronto, a very hard slide that he went after the ball in the player's glove. I believe my player. And the way he reacted when he slid leads me to believe that that's what he was trying to do. 'Cause if there was malicious intent, I think he would have popped right up. I believe my guy."

Girardi said he didn't have a problem with the slide.

"Did his spikes go up a little high? Yes they did," he said. "Part of that could have been because he hit the base funny and then he hit him. When you hit the base funny your legs kind of go up and then if you make contact, it's going to go up. It's going to push up. You don't want to try to hurt anyone, but I believe Shelley wasn't trying to hurt anyone."

Shelley's father Dave was also on the defensive:

Cardinals pitching coach Dave Duncan, flush with the excitement of having a new million-dollar arm in camp, still has something to be furious about. The slow-burn coach, the longest serving pitching coach in baseball history, was irate with how son, Yankees first baseman Shelley Duncan, has been described after a slide that erupted the rivalry between Tampa Bay and the Yanks this past week.

“Borderline criminal” was how one baseball official put it.

And Duncan was simmering before his kid’s suspension was announced Friday.

“I don’t like the comments being made,” Papa Duncan told the media Thursday before discussing the pending arrival of Kyle Lohse. “He plays the game hard. He plays to win. He plays the way you want everybody to play.”