As you are no doubt aware, the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry already has plenty of attendant hostilities. Now, however, Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira may have ramped those up just a bit with his postgame comments Friday.
In the seventh inning, Teixeira crushed a go-ahead triple off Boston right-hander Vicente Padilla, whom Teixeira seems to regard as an enemy of all that is good an righteous. As WEEI points out, Teixeira's problems with Padilla date back to their time in Texas together, when Teixeira grew frustrated with Padilla's tendency to throw at opposing hitters -- a tendency that often made Teixeira the target of retribution.
Since Teixeira was traded away from the Rangers, those feelings intensified, thanks to the fact that Padilla has since plunked Teixeira three times in 17 plate appearances. Not surprisingly, Padilla ranks 66th all-time with 107 career hit batsmen.
So back to Friday. Teixeira's triple proved to be the winning hit, and afterward the Yankee slugger could barely conceal his revenge-glee. "Game-winning hits always feel good," Teixeira said, "but that one definitely felt real good." [MLB.com]
Why? As you've probably guessed, it's because of Padilla. "The guy throws at people, fact of the matter," Teixeira said of his nemesis [WEEI]. "I'm not saying anything that's news. It is what it is. I've always been someone who wants to play the game the right way. You play hard, you don't play cheap. I've always just lived that way, too. Some guys decide to take matters into their own hands. In the NFL, he'd probably be suspended by Roger Goodell eight games, or a whole season but this is baseball."
Needless to say, we may not have heard the last of this "feud within a feud."
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