After Friday’s benches-clearing incident in the game between the Indians and Yankees, umpire Dan Iassogna wasn’t going to tolerate any hijinks Saturday. Iassogna tossed Cleveland’s Mitch Talbot in the bottom of the sixth for hitting Alex Rodriguez in the thigh, even though it was the first HBP for either team on the day.
In Iassogna’s defense, there were some suspicious circumstances here. Curtis Granderson homered two batters before A-Rod stepped to the plate, and A-Rod himself had homered in his previous at-bat.
Still, it was just a 2-0 game at the time, with the solo homers accounting for the only scoring. Talbot was defnitely hoping for a win at the time, not revenge. It was raining in New York, and Tablot clearly slipped on the mound while delivering the pitch that his A-Rod. Yankees PBP guy Michael Kay suggested it might have been acting, but with the awkward delivery, Talbot didn’t throw the pitch at full speed and what’s the point of intentionally hitting someone if you’re not going to rush the ball up there as hard as you can?
With Iassogna quickly taking control, there wasn’t much action in the dugouts after this one. A-Rod dropped to his knees for a minute, but he was fine to continue. Bartolo Colon is currently working on another shutout bid and would be foolish to retaliate with the score as is. If there’s more to come, it probably won’t happen until Sunday or Monday.