In tonight’s 6-2 win over the Rays, Joba Chamberlain threw a pitch directly at Evan Longoria’s head in the fourth inning. Matt Garza countered by hitting Mark Teixeira on the upper arm in the following inning, but he interestingly admitted it.
"I hate to be that guy, but someone had to take a stand and say we're tired of it," the right-hander added. "You can go after our best guy. Well, we'll make some noise, too, and that's what happened."
It’s very rare that a pitcher openly says something so clear about this kind of thing. As Longoria noted, intentionally throwing at players is “just part of the game.”
Longoria is right about that, but Garza is not right to openly admit he did throw at a player intentionally. Garza will most likely incur a suspension because of it.