Red Sox Angry At Joba

From WEEI's Full Count blog, hat-tip to Peter Abraham:

Speaking on the Dale & Holley Show, Red Sox pitching coach John Farrell insinuated that the Sox were suspicious of the motivations of Yankees starter Joba Chamberlain when he hit Jason Bay in the fifth inning of the Red Sox’ win Tuesday night.

“Typically, we let the game play out itself because I think our guys have each others backs and they are certainly going to be supportive if a situation like that were to arise,” Farrell said. “Speaking specifically about last night, he strikes out 12 guys, doesn’t seem to have too many command issues, and if there was a purpose or intent to throw up and in you can disguise it a little bit more than making it very obvious with the first pitch in the middle of the back to Jason Bay. Those things aren’t forgotten. We know there is a history there between the pitcher in New York and our guys here and not to say that he was specifically out to do that but I think history speaks for itself and we’ve got a number of games left with these guys.”

Josh Beckett and Jon Lester also talked about Joba:

First, Josh Beckett, the pitcher on the mound for the Sox following Chamberlain’s pitch, would only say, “Everybody has a job to do and mine is not to delegate blame, or purpose, or intent. Things have a way of working themselves out, that’s way I look at it. That stuff always has a way of working itself out.”

Like Farrell, Jon Lester was a bit more pointed in his remarks.

“It’s one of those deals where I’m all for throwing in, but there comes a point somebody, whether it be baseball or the opponent, has to step in and say enough is enough,” said Sox hurler. “Balls have gone over guys heads and gone up too close. There’s a difference between throwing in and making a point and he definitely tries to make some points. I don’t know if he’s trying to him there or not, but he did and it looks bad because J-Bay did hit a home run off of him, along with the history with us and other players. He always come back and says the ball slipped, I wasn’t trying to hit anybody. One time you can fool us, two times you can maybe say OK, but it’s gotten old. In baseball it’s one of those deals where you can’t really think there’s a punishment necessary. It’s one of those deals where we might have to police it ourselves a little bit more, I don’t know.”

First I should say that I think Joba definitely threw at Bay on purpose and I'm glad he did it. Bay was way to comfortable at the plate agains the Yankees, and maybe this will make him a little less comfortable. And I know there was a runner on base, but there were two outs and I think Joba trusted his stuff to get Mike Lowell out.

Second, can the Red Sox please stop whining about this crap? First it was Ortiz a few weeks ago, now it's Farrell and Lester. Pedro Martinez spent his whole career pitching inside and hitting people and nobody in Boston had a problem with it then.

"He always come back and says the ball slipped"

Isn't that exactly what Josh Beckett said when he sent one at Bobby Abreu's head in LA a few weeks ago?

Stop whining.