Hot tempers, dugouts clearing amp up Crabs-Somerset tilt

Hit Somerset batters is product of pitching inside, nothing more, Hobson says

Friday, July 2, 2010

There is no love lost between the two teams that decided the Atlantic League crown last year, evident by tempers that boiled over during a dugouts-clearing altercation in the top of the ninth inning of Sunday's game at Regency Furniture Stadium in Waldorf.

Somerset's Elliott Ayala took exception to getting hit by a pitch for the second time in the game, the most recent coming in the final frame on an offering from Southern Maryland Blue Crabs closer Jim Ed Warden that struck the batter above the waist around his rib cage.

A furious Ayala thus stormed halfway to the mound, gesturing his displeasure with Warden with his bat in hand. Home plate umpire Mark Facto and Blue Crabs catcher Christian Lopez kept Ayala from going any further while the dugouts and bullpens completely emptied out onto the field.

No physical blows were exchanged but verbal spars went back and forth, particularly between Blue Crabs manager Butch Hobson and Ayala as the Somerset shortstop took first base.

Hobson said neither of the pitches that hit Ayala was intentional, the first one coming from Blue Crabs starting hurler Connor Robertson to lead off the fifth. Ayala took first base in that situation without being disgruntled, and he eventually scored to give Somerset a 4-0 lead, setting the stage for a thrilling Blue Crabs comeback in their 6-5 walk-off win.

Hobson pointed to the crucial juncture during the top of the ninth with the pivotal game tied at 5 — and both teams involved in a pennant race this final week of the first half of the season — as more justification for why Ayala was not thrown at intentionally, aside from that not being standard operating procedure for the Blue Crabs.

There were two outs and none on base in the ninth when Ayala was hit, and the fast base-stealing threat could have wreaked havoc on the Blue Crabs had they not recorded the final out against the next Somerset batter.

"Ayala — that's the most ridiculous thing people can do," a disgusted Hobson said afterward Sunday about how the ninth escalated emotionally between the teams when Ayala reacted to getting hit by the pitch. "Two outs [in the top of the ninth], and we're putting the go-ahead run on first because we're throwing at him? That's the way [Somerset] does stuff over there, and I'm tired of it. [Ayala] is [ticked] off because he got hit once [before the ninth] today by accident. Whoever taught him about the game taught him wrong.

"You've got to pitch inside to be effective. I preach inside because it's the only way these [pitchers] are going to get out of here [to the affiliated minors]. They're here because they can't pitch inside."

Ironically, Ayala used to play for Hobson at a previous stop. There are no warm, fuzzy feelings between the two.

There is a history of Blue Crabs pitches plunking Somerset batters.

In a May 7 win at Somerset, then-Blue Crabs pitcher Jarrett Grube hit Somerset six-time all-star Jeff Nettles on the left hand, fracturing his fifth metacarpal. Nettles, the Most Valuable Player of last year's championship series versus the Blue Crabs, has been sidelined ever since.

Last October in the momentous Game 3 of the league championship series in Southern Maryland, Somerset manager Sparky Lyle was ejected, and later suspended for Game 4, for getting enraged that then-Blue Crabs reliever Dane De La Rosa was not tossed out of the affair for hitting Nettles — that loaded the bases in the seventh of a tied game and led to the visitors scoring the deciding three runs in an 8-5 win — after both sides had previously been warned. De La Rosa said his pitch was not intentional.

Earlier in that contest, then-Blue Crabs starter Ryan Bicondoa hit Somerset's Travis Anderson, now the team's third base coach. Anderson's heated words toward Bicondoa as he took first continued once he came around to score, setting off Blue Crabs catcher Octavio Martinez. Both dugouts emptied in heated fashion — much like Sunday's incident — with no physical exchanges.

"I'm tired of it. Every time we play them, we're getting pitched inside and guys are getting drilled," Somerset reliever Casey Cahill said after Sunday's game. "[Nettles] has missed eight weeks so far, and he's one of our best players. Whether it's on purpose or not, it's happening too much. They've got to find the strike zone. If they don't find the strike zone, things are going to change.

"If you're not giving the signal to hit somebody, well give them the signal to start throwing the ball over the plate. If not, it's going to be a long year."

An infuriated Hobson retorted in an expletive-laced response, "We hit [then-Somerset batter] Sean Smith with a curveball with the bases loaded last year in a two-run game. And they're yelling and screaming. Why would you do that? Why would you think that we're throwing at somebody with the bases loaded in a two-run game with a curveball? That's what they do.

"They did that in the championship series. They think we're throwing at them. I'm tired of their bull [crap]. They think they can walk all over everybody because they're the Somerset Patriots. But not this [Blue Crabs] team, not this year, not anymore."

Hobson added about Cahill's comments, "He's a pitcher, and he doesn't pitch inside?"

Lyle was not available for comment after Sunday's game.

dcogle@somdnews.com