Who would have ever thought that by the time he left 'Bean' Town, the city that hates him most, Alex Rodriguez would emerge a martyr?
After being up 2-0 to begin the second inning, Ryan Dempster took 'justice' into his own hands by drilling Alex Rodriguez with a 92 mph fastball on his back shoulder in his fourth pitch of the at bat - all fastballs. The first fastball was thrown behind A Rod's back, the next two were high and inside, and well... you know where the story goes from here.
Upon Alex Rodriguez being hit by the pitch, home plate umpire Brian O' Nora rightfully immediately issued warning's to both the Yankees and Red Sox dugouts, handcuffing the Yankees and C.C. Sabathia with zero shot of retaliation.
Let's call a spade a spade; In my opinion, after four obvious, and I stress the word obvious, attempts at hitting Alex Rodriguez, Ryan Dempster should have been ejected from the game right on the spot. Instead, benches and bullpens cleared, and Yankees Manager Joe Girardi, appropriately disgruntled, went to bat for his player, as he stormed out of the dugout screaming at O'Nora, ultimately leading to his ejection.
You can call it old-fashioned baseball, you can call it just another chapter of the storied Yankees - Red Sox rivalry, or you can just call it plain stupidity.
The flat our truth is Ryan Dempster and the Boston Red Sox may have potentially awoken a sleeping monster in the AL East.
The Yank's scored two runs in the second inning following A Rod's at bat to tie the game, and Alex Rodriguez followed up his HBP with an RBI ground out in the third, and a sixth inning 440 foot 'A-BOMB' of a Home Run (career No. 649) in the deepest part of Fenway Park off of Ryan Dempster that sparked a four run rally, which eventually capped one the best come from behind Yankee wins of the season.
So, rest assured Ryan Dempster and the Red Sox organization may have felt good about themselves for a few seconds, but on the flip side they may have given the Yankees brand new life. No matter how you look at it, last nights fiasco at Fenway illustrated that the Yankee players and managers clearly had their teammates back.
The man in the middle of it all may have said it best. Alex Rodriguez in a post game interview following last nights game stated "That was silly and unprofessional, and my teammates reacted. I think Joe's reaction was incredible. Hopefully we can take this a build some momentum for the rest of the year. Today kind of brought of us together."
If the Yankees go on a late season run, Yankee fans can sure point back to Ryan Dempster on August 18th at Fenway Park and say 'thank you.'
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