Advantage, Beckett and Boston
So here’s the deal: Josh Beckett comes up and in on Bobby Abreu after time is called by the home-plate umpire, Paul Schreiber, and the upshot is the Angels lose their Gold Glove center fielder, their manager, their hitting coach and a middle reliever.
The Red Sox? They lose nobody, nothing.
This is how if often goes in sports. It’s the player/team that responds or retaliates that usually suffers the consequences.
The Angels lost Torii Hunter, Mike Scisocia, Mickey Hatcher and Justin Speier after the benches cleared. Order appeared restored before Beckett had words with Scioscia, and that’s what incited a second incident that led to all the Angels’ ejections.
I am aware of no history between Beckett and Abreu dating to their days as Red Sox-Yankees rivals. Abreu hasn’t done much against the ace over the years — .210 coming into the game with two homers and five RBIs. But Abreu did deliver a big hit, a two-run single, that gave the Angels a 3-2 lead in the third inning.
The best Angels hitter against Beckett has been Hunter, a .455 average with a double and two RBIs in 11 career at-bats. Gary Matthews Jr., who replaced Hunter, was 2-for-15 against Beckett (.133) coming into the game.
Matthews, who unleashed a spectacular throw to first from left center, only to watch Kendry Morales drop a shot at a double play in the top of the third, grounded out in his first two at-bats against Beckett. Morales’ misplay didn’t cost the Angels. Dustin Moseley got the next hitter, Dustin Pedroia, to bounce into a double play.
rallymonkeys 
I didn’t see the incident – Easter dinner and all – but from what I’ve read it seems like the Angels might have overreacted. It’s tough, their emotions are running high.
Julia
http://werbiefitz.mlblogs.com/
i saw the incident, and no one overreacted, the umpires under reacted.. it is always the same with these dirty, spoiled RedSox.. Every time we play them they act like jerks and for some reason they still have respect.. i dont get it, the Yankees act more professionally than the Sox.. Beckett is a complete jackass.. i dont know why, maybe it is because he cant beat the Angels in the regular season but he always acts like a jerk.. 1st he holds the ball for almost 12 seconds before he delivers, then Time is called by the umpire and he throws at Bobby’s head??! 94 mph at the bean? you would lose it too.. the big proble is, Beckett walked toward Bobby and confronted him.. that is an automatic ejection, or at least it would be for any other team other than the Redsox.. for some reason the Sox get different treatment.. ever since Big Fatty (Pappi) showed up Weaver by standing at the plate to watch a home run, they have been getting away with it.. SOMEONE IN OUR ROTATION NEEDS TO PUT ONE IN ONE OR MORE OF THEIR EARS.. they need to know we arent a bunch of whimps.. see if Youk will dig in to the box then… how is it that 4 of us got tossed and none of them?? really?
Good post. Scioscia usually handles himself with a lot of class but I hope he can take a page from his buddy Joe Maddon and have the team up the ante a little bit more. Yes, Tampa Bay is successful because of talent, but it is also because they don’t take crap from the Red Sox (or Yankees). Last year, they got into quite a few fights with their AL East rivals. I want to see the Angels do the same with the Red Sox.
Anyone who wants to think the Angels overreacted is welcome to stand in front of a pitcher and have them throw a 94MPH fastball at their head. I don’t know if it was intentional but Beckett is the one who took forever worrying about Figgins. Abreu had enough and was given time. Watching a replay it looks like Beckett had plenty of time to not make his pitch or throw it down the middle. Why throw it toward Abreu?
As for what happened next, nothing happened. That is nothing happened until Beckett came charging at Abreu. That’s when everything got started. Even Baseball Tonight pointed that out.
Mike – Stop wishing for the Angels to get into fights. That isn’t Mike Scioscia’s way. He prefers that the officials just do their jobs and handle it. Too bad they don’t seem to know what their job is.
Yes, as a Yankee fan–despite the Halos always making it hard on my team–I’m gonna side with them and against the Sux. But c’mon: how the hell does Beckett not get an immediate ejection after approaching Abreu? Overreaction? You throw at the guy’s head AND march towards home AND there is no disciplinary action from the umps? (Except for ejecting 4 Halos, of course.)
The Angels should request MLB look into the situation. Of course, the Red Sux-happy media (NY Times, ESPN) won’t agree; and the people that put a known Sux fan (George Mitchell) in charge of an investigation (the Mitchell Report) that found NOT ONE Sux player involved in any wrongdoing, probably won’t be of much help.
Im not sure if there is anything to this, but I have been rather disappointed in whoever may have done this.
Check the 34 on the back of the mound before Beckett throws his pitch, its defined and very noticeable. Check the mound after the the scuffle is done with, you will notice that you cant even make out if there is a 34 on there. Now this may be from a bunch of players walking over the mound, I hope thats the case.
But if someone purposefully wiped off the 34 as a gesture then that is beyond an acceptable form of anger, and MLB should replay the video to find if someone did indeed intentionally wipe the mound.
As for this incident, everything was being taken care of fine until Beckett started pointing and yelling at Abreu the first time, and then Scisocia the second time. I really think the umpiring crew did an lawful job at handling the situation, it was clearly Becketts gestures that started all the trouble.
And yet the crew chief Joe West makes a statement after the game saying that: “The Angels were the aggressors in the situation and thats why they got tossed.” *boggle*
Im glad Becketts getting suspended at least some mlb officials can make sense out of what happened. Now all they need to do is suspend the umpire who made the Nick Adenhart comment that set Hunter off.
What do you think the chances of Beckett getting his suspension overturned are, considering the on-field crew chief never tossed him at the time? Ashhttp://ashleymarshall.mlblogs.com
I hope the 6 day suspension holds up. At that length, he’ll miss a turn or at least get his pattern really fouled up. He’s been punished; I read that the Angels think that 6 days was just.
These two teams will really be after each other now (as if they weren’t already). Trouble is . . . at least to my eyes, the Sox seem to come off as the tougher customers . . . NOT that they have a better team; I think the Angels are right there with them, in potential. But the Halos have to actually “fire off” on all those cylinders, and of course, do it in the playoffs too . . . otherwise, it all looks like smoke and mirrors.
I like our team.
I am worried about Vlade (seems to have aged really quickly of late), I’m ready to ship Rivera and Quinlan (we know what they bring, at best, and it’s not enough), I want to see Woods and Brown.
and of course, we miss Nick.
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