Most figured there was going to be a little spill over from last night’s plunkings. Sure enough, when Miguel Cabrera was nailed on the wrist in the 1st inning, it was all but a certainty. The initial retaliation appeared to be in the bottom half of the first when Porcello went up and in on Victor Martinez. Martinez stared Porcello down like he doesn’t know baseball like he knows crying. Moving on.
In the second inning though, in the middle of Cabrera’s at bat, you could clearly see that his hand was bothering him from being hit. After fouling a pitch off, he decided he couldn’t handle it any longer and had to be pulled. That’s when you had to believe Detroit would retaliate. Boston did not just send a message to the Tigers, they hurt their best player. Payback was inevitable, it’s the unwritten rules in baseball.
Sure enough, Porcello plunked the first batter in the middle of the back in the bottom of the 2nd. Thankfully, it was Kevin Youkilis the biggest bitch of them all and he charged the mound. If you’re interested in seeing and reading a screen shot play-by-play (with captions) followed up with an actual video (that will probably be taken down eventually) then click read more.
After being plunked square in the back, Youkilis took no time to toss his bat toward the bat boy and huff and puff toward the mound. Porcello throws his hands out and takes a few steps back to get off the uneven mound and to probably sell that it was unintentional. Everyone knows it was intentional, and honestly, I don’t blame Porcello for being a little scared. Youkilis is a big guy and remember, Porcello is just 20-years old. Youkilis was cutting down trees and inventing the gayest batting stance ever when Porcello was still eating oatmeal and watching Blues Clues.
Just as Youkilis gets to the front of the mound, he decides to rip off his helmet and heave it at Porcello. Similar to his batting stance, Youkilis has awful form, throwing off his front foot. Porcello, who is still backing up and off the mound puts his glove up as if he will catch the helmet.
As expected, Youkilis throws the helmet at Porcello and quick Rick dodges it. Perhaps the helmet toss, as weak as it was, served as merely a distraction tactic by Youkilis, because Porcello is now off balance and vulnerable to a take down. Right?
Despite Porcello being slightly off balance from dodging the helmet toss, Youk looks like he just ran into a brick wall. He bear hugs Porcello and looks like he just needs a hug more than he wants to fight. I have NO IDEA how Ryan Raburn is falling over in this picture. Perhaps he was stiff armed by Youkilis, but I’d be willing to bet that Raburn just slipped — he is pretty clumsy.
Porcello will have none of Youkilis as he takes him with his right arm like he’s a weightless baseball and throws him to the ground.
Here’s another view of Porcello slamming Youk into the ground.
And down they both go. Youkillis appears to have the upper hand here with his left arm wrapped around Porcello. However, Porcello winds up on top of him as you’ll see in the next picture.
This awesome capture from the Free Press shows Porcello on top of Youkilis.
This picture reminds me of the following “Swingers” scene. Porcello is slapping Youk’s forehead and saying, “look at you, you wanna kiss me.”
Youk went to the clubhouse immediately after this was all broken up. He always shows such upstanding maturity. Meanwhile, Porcello stuck around because he did not want to be ejected (nor did the Tigers considering their depleted bullpen). When he found out he was in fact ejected, he became as animated as we’ve ever seen this poised rookie all season. As Leyland escorted him off the field, he turned back to the umpires a few times and dropped some expletives that will most likely get him the ol’ soap in the mouth treatment from mom when he gets home from school. Either way, amazing job by the kid.
So that was that. Afterwards, Chris Lambert, the Tigers best worst pitcher came in and immediately put another runner on and gave up a game tying 3-run homer. As we stand at the rain delay, Detroit trails 6-3.
In the meantime, while it still exists, the video of the brawl itself courtesty of The World of Isaac. Enjoy.
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