Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon and Boston Red Sox starter John Lackey have a long history, which is perhaps why the Rays' skipper seemed to have no problem calling out the right-hander following Monday's extra-inning loss to the Sox.
Rays manager Joe Maddon blasts ‘bad teammate’ John Lackey
Maddon had some choice words for the Red Sox pitcher following Monday’s game, which included a benches-clearing brawl after Lackey beaned Rays outfielder Matt Joyce.
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Responding to the bench-clearing incident in the sixth inning in which Lackey beaned Matt Joyce in the back with a fastball, Maddon told reporters that there was "no question in his mind" that the beanball was intentional, and that Lackey's actions -- hitting Joyce when it wasn't called for -- made him "a bad teammate."
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Lackey maintains that he was trying to "get a little plate for me" -- i.e. pitch inside -- but Maddon, Lackey's bench coach in Anaheim for his first four seasons with the Angels, believes otherwise. Maddon added that he had always considered Lackey a good teammate in the past, but found Monday's actions "really inappropriate."
The bad blood between Lackey and Joyce presumably surfaced when the latter took the former deep to lead off the game. The pair appeared to exchange words following Joyce’s subsequent at bat in the second inning, then things subsided until the sixth when Lackey went a little too far inside with a fastball.
Despite Lackey and company’s best efforts to give the game away -- blowing a six-run lead -- the Red Sox won Monday’s contest 10-8 in 14 innings.
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