Following David Ortiz's profanity laden tirade after Friday's chaotic Red Sox game, Rays pitcher David Price responded with some choice words of his own for the slugger during an interview with FOX's Ken Rosenthal.
David Price fires back at David Ortiz
David Price calls Big Papi out for thinking he’s “bigger than the game” and comparing their rivalry to a war, says he’s not worried about losing his respect.
Winslow Townson
While most of the interview involved Price answering questions about his relationship with Ortiz, he did take the time to strongly rebuke Ortiz’s claim that their feud had become a “war”. The Vanderbilt grad told Rosenthal, “You say stupid stuff when you’re mad. Been there. I’m sure he probably wishes he didn’t say some of the things he said. You can’t relate the game we play to a war.”
After comparing Ortiz’s statement to Kellen Winslow’s infamous “I’M A SOLDIER” interview, he put to rest any notion of anything close to a war between the two, “You’re not a soldier. This is not war. We have troops fighting for us that are in a war. It’s not a good comparison.” He also made it clear that he and Ortiz wouldn’t be having a conversation like they did in the offseason to work out an issue stemming from the ALDS, saying, “We’ve got nothing to talk about.”
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Much of Price’s disdain appears to come from his belief that Ortiz thinks he’s “bigger than the game”. In fact, he hinted at the pitch’s intent -- and his reasoning behind it -- while referring to the incident and Ortiz’s reaction to it, saying “nobody’s bigger than the game of baseball. You ask pitchers from 10-15-20 years ago. That’s normal. Part of the game.” It appears they were never too fond of each other even after working things out following the playoffs, and now it seems the window for a magical friendship between the two has officially closed.
Actually, it probably closed sometime between Ortiz calling Price a "little bitch" and telling reporters he had "no respect for him no more" following Friday night's extremely contentious game. The game saw three Red Sox managers and starting pitcher Brandon Workman ejected from the game in three separate incidents involving hit batsmen.
Despite all this, the Sox won in extras on an A.J. Pierzynski triple that scored Jonny Gomes, extending the team's winning streak to five games. This is just one week after losing ten straight, including the last three against the Rays, with the final game -- and the brawl that ensued following Yunel Escobar's late-inning stolen base -- seen as the catalyst that may have turned around the Red Sox's season.
Of course, that seems to indicate that the Red Sox’s best shifting strategy for the rest of the season may moving towards the Rays bench en masse.
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