Part of why Lucas Giolito was so irked by Josh Donaldson's behavior Tuesday night?
He wanted the Minnesota Twins third baseman to direct any trash talk directly at him, rather than shout things about the Chicago White Sox ace to his teammates in the visitors' dugout following his first-inning home run.
Well, according to Donaldson, that's what happened late Tuesday, when he had a heated conversation with Giolito in the parking lot after hearing what the pitcher had to say in a postgame media session during which he called Donaldson "a f---ing pest" and "classless."
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"He said, 'I wish he'd said it to my face.' Right?" Donaldson said. "Well, I did say it to his face. We had a talk last night. Let's just be quite frank with this, he didn't have much to say.
"It happened after the game. ... He was walking in the parking lot, and I went and made sure he heard what I had to say to his face because that's what he wanted. That's what he wanted.
"He said that he thought I was annoying. I said, 'So what? I'm on the opposing team. What do you care about me?' I said, 'I'm in your face. I'm telling you what I think. What have you got to say about that?' And he didn't have any response."
MLB
The revelation of a parking-lot confrontation was among the many attention-grabbing things to come out of Donaldson's mouth during a lengthy pregame media session Wednesday, one in which he also suggested Giolito of benefiting from the use of foreign substances and went after NBC Sports Chicago analyst Ozzie Guillén, who said he'd intentionally hit Donaldson with a pitch during "White Sox Postgame Live" on Tuesday night.
While Donaldson was fine with being labeled a "pest" in the middle of this AL Central rivalry, he fired back at Giolito for the "classless" comment, suggesting Giolito hadn't been playing by the rules prior to Major League Baseball's recent crackdown on "sticky stuff."
"If we are going to talk about class, what side are you going to choose?" Donaldson said. "Are you going to take the side of someone who is playing the game fair? Or are you going to take the side of somebody that was probably cheating before this happened?"