On August 11th, 2009 the Red Sox and Tigers’ tensions were high and patience was low. On the 10th, Miguel Cabrera was hit by Brad Penny, and Edwin Jackson retaliated by hitting Kevin Youkilis.

On the night of Youk’s fight with Porcello, tensions were running high. Very early into the ball game, the Boston Red Sox hit Tigers star Miguel Cabrera in the hand. This shook him up, and he was forced to leave the game. The young rookie, Rick Porcello of the Tigers, took note.

Porcello got his revenge pretty quickly, as just an inning later, Victor Martinez of the Red Sox came to the plate. Porcello shook up Martinez by nearly hitting him with an inside pitch, and Martinez knew exactly what was going on. Taking a few steps toward the mound and speaking his mind to Porcello, Martinez showed his feelings about the incident.

Up next was Kevin Youkilis. Youk stepped in to the batter’s box, got set, the pitcher fired, and POW! Youk was hit in the upper back. Immediately Youk charged the mound. Porcello drifted toward first, Youk threw his helmet at him, and then attempted to tackle him. Luckily Youk isn’t a very good tackler and Porcello wound up on top.

Thinking about baseball fights, this was definitely an entertaining one. As far as the fight strategies of both players goes, I have to give them a failing grade. To throw a helmet is simply inappropriate. What is he, a pro wrestler using props like that?

How about trying to tackle Porcello too? What happened to the steady, reliable punch? This isn’t football and his jumping on top of Porcello really threw things off.

Porcello at 20 years old made Youkilis look like he was 12, but it wasn’t as if Porcello did much right. Youkilis just did more wrong. Porcello would have been much better off moving off to this right, in the direction of Brandon Inge, who would have provided much better protection than the Tigers’ first baseman.

Youkilis was obviously steamed after the whole incident, but he let up a little bit at the end. Maybe he realized that pitchers have been going after batters for as long as the game’s been around.

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3. Was Prince Fielder Right to Charge the Dugout?

Category: Baseball Players• Tags used in this article: Boston Red Sox  Brad Penny  Brandon Inge  Kevin Youkilis  Miguel Cabrera 

Baseball articles on the web based on related keywords: Boston Red Sox  Brad Penny  Brandon Inge  Kevin Youkilis  Miguel Cabrera