New York Yankees left-hander CC Sabathia shot back Friday at Hall of Famer and NESN analyst Jim Rice, who advised the 37-year-old veteran to "lose some weight" after he complained about the Boston Red Sox bunting on him Thursday night in the Bronx.

"I just hope when I'm that age I'm not that bitter," Sabathia said of Rice ahead of Friday's game, according to Newsday's Erik Boland.

Despite earning the win Thursday, allowing just one run over six innings in a 6-2 victory, Sabathia took umbrage with Eduardo Nunez's first-inning bunt, cursing at the Red Sox dugout at the end of the frame and calling the strategy "weak" in his postgame scrum.

"It's kind of weak to me," Sabathia told reporters, including Dan Martin of the New York Post. "It shows what they've got over there. … I'm an old man. They should go out there and try to kick my butt."

Rice, an All-Star eight times in his 16 seasons with the Red Sox, wasn't having it.

"What is he talking about? Bunting is part of the game," Rice said in a fiery rant. "You try to get on base any way you can. If you tell him to leave some of that chicken, that doughnut, and that burger away, maybe his leg would be okay that he can field that baseball. Yeah, that's just stupid."

Asked if Sabathia had any right to be upset with Nunez, Rice didn't equivocate.

"No. No. Not at all," Rice said. "What he has a right to do is fulfill his contract, lose some weight, and go out there and pitch."