Lowering the boom...

The wild west broke out in the middle of Fenway Park last night, and there were cheap shots flying in and out of the dugout. The Rays proved once again that they are not prepared to be true contenders. They have their best pitcher other than Kazmir on the mound in James Shields and he pops Crisp the first time he's up. In a game of this magnitude for a young club like the Rays, they showed that they are still too inexperienced to be a player in the AL East.

A smart manager and a smart pitcher would have waited to exact their revenge. Make Crisp squirm in the box every time he faces your club. Make him think every pitch could potentially send him sprawling into the dirt. Wait until the end of a meaningless game and pop him then, don't sacrifice a quality start for the sake of revenge. Teams like the Rays cannot afford to be giving away games that easily.

As for the fight itself, Crisp was out of line charging the mound and the Rays in general were a bunch of cheap shot-taking weasels. Crisp knew that he was going to be hit. He took responsibility for it during the post-game on Wednesday. Why he charged the mound when he knew he would be plunked, I don't know. The plunking wasn't even that bad, right on the thigh, nowhere near the head or upper body. A harmless fastball to the thigh.

The Rays players themselves looked like thugs, giving extra punches to Crisp as he lay on the ground under multiple bodies. Jonny Gomes leapt on Crisp like he had a personal agenda against him, sneaking in body shots and Carl Crawford (who, mind you, is not even supposed to be at full health) comes sprinting in from the outfield and starts punching Crisp in the face. All of this just made the Rays look sophomoric and unprofessional. I will be very interested to see the suspensions handed down. I expect Crisp to receive the worst end of all of this, but Gomes and Crawford should also see some time handed down.

The fun didn't stop on the field though, instead, it spilled over into the Sox dugout. No one seems to be willing to offer up what was going on between Manny and Youkilis in the dugout, but it looked on replay as if Youk really had no interest or wanted no part of it. My best guess? Manny took his sweet time getting out of the dugout to come to Crisp's aide earlier in the game. Youkilis was out there instantly. I would guess that Youk probably said something like that in passing to Manny and he took exception. One of the biggest parts of a baseball team is respect and protecting teammates. Manny likely didn't take kindly to being called a coward.

This was by far the most entertaining game so far this season. And on top of all that, the Sox won.

Can't wait for the three-game series at the Trop. I would predict more fireworks...