There were fireworks in the Bronx Wednesday night, and I am not just talking about how the Yankees lit up the scoreboard in their 9-5 victory over the Mets. Mark Teixeira had some disagreements with his cross-town rivals.
It started off innocently enough, Teixera hit a three-run shot off of Steven Matz to put the Yankees up by a score of 6-3. In his next at-bat against the southpaw Matz, he threw a pitch that got away and hit Teixeira’s lower left leg. Things quickly escalated with both benches and bullpens clearing, nothing though came of it.
“I know Matz is a good kid, but when you hit a home run and the next pitch is not even close to the plate and hits you, it just looks bad,” Teixeira said. “So I just told him I didn’t appreciate it. If it was on purpose, it was uncalled for. If it wasn’t, it just looked really bad.” (ESPN)
Matz though advised that this was not a purpose pitch, it was one that just got away.
“I honestly didn’t do it on purpose. It was a bad time for the ball to get away from me. But I can understand why he was upset.”
That though would not end the drama on the night for Teixeira and the Mets. Enter the seventh inning and Hansel Robles. Teixeira was leading off second base and toying with Robles on the mound, who had thought he had stolen the Mets signs.
“That was funny,” Teixeira said. “After three or four pitches, I realized that he is, like, staring at me, and he thinks I have his signs. He’s staring me down. I couldn’t hear [what he was saying] because of the crowd, so I just started having some fun with him. I didn’t have his signs. I was breathing. I was just having some fun with him.”
“It got worse and worse. He kept staring at me more and more and yelling stuff, so I just started having some fun. If it was that bad, change your signs. I think everyone told him at the mound, ‘Bro, he doesn’t have your signs.’ It was just funny. I think we got a kick out of that one.”
Robles was made to look like a fool on the mound, as Teixeira just completely played with his mind. Robles could be seen yelling at Tex as he exited the game with him on third base at the time.
“I tried telling him when I was coming off the field … ‘Play baseball tough,'” Robles said. “You don’t need to be picking up signs. I got a little upset. That’s not the way you play baseball. You have to play baseball as a man.”
A very interesting turn of events where the Mets just looked bad all around. With the Subway Series wrapping up tonight in the Bronx, it is hard not to wonder if anything else spills into the game’s festivities.
