Pitch near Miguel Cabrera's head could spur retaliation

John Lowe | USA TODAY Sports

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Tropicana Field is an indoor stadium, but a storm is possible for the Detroit Tigers-Tampa Bay Rays series finale Sunday afternoon.

It's a storm that could involve a Tampa Bay hitter being the subject of retaliation for what happened to Miguel Cabrera in the 10th inning Saturday night.

As Cabrera batted to lead off the inning, Rays closer Fernando Rodney threw a pitch that Cabrera apparently felt came too close to his head.

After Rodney struck Cabrera out, the clearly steamed Cabrera launched a series of verbal volleys from the dugout in the direction of either the mound or the Rays' dugout as the inning continued.

Cabrera declined to talk about the matter afterward, but Tigers manager Jim Leyland said: "To throw up there in that area (the head) is not acceptable. Somebody pays a price for that throughout baseball. That's the way baseball is. That's not free. There's no free lunch."

Leyland didn't accuse Rodney of throwing at Cabrera. He pointed out that on the pitch before Rodney came high and tight, he threw one so wildly, it went to the backstop.

"He was just winding up and throwing it," Leyland said. "I'm not indicating he was trying to throw at him at all. But you've got to know where you're going with it if you're going to throw inside. You can't just be pot-lucking and if it's up in the head area, that's OK. That's not acceptable."

Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon told the Tampa Bay Times that "there was no ill intent going on out there."

And Rodney told the Times: "You have to pitch inside sometimes. If you pitch, you have to protect the strike zone, you have to pitch inside, outside, everywhere. You don't want to hit nobody because the game is on the line. That's what I have in my mind. I try to move him a little but because, you know, the guy is a dangerous hitter. I take advantage tonight with that."

Sunday is the final Rays-Tigers game of the season, so if the Tigers are going to try to get even for Rodney's pitch near Cabrera's head, they'll have to do so Sunday or wait until next year, perhaps in spring training. It is common in baseball that when a big hitter on one team gets hit with a pitch, or has to duck out of the way of something high and tight, someone on the other team almost inevitably will get the reciprocal treatment.

But given the way the Tigers' bullpen remains unsettled, and considering the Tigers don't have another day off for two weeks, it wouldn't be a good idea for starting pitcher Rick Porcello to try to get any kind of payback for the Cabrera-Rodney episode in the early innings Sunday. Pitchers can be ejected without warning for throwing at a hitter, and the Tigers could ill afford to have Porcello ejected early.

There's no known animosity between Cabrera and Rodney. They were teammates on the Tigers in 2008-09. But Cabrera, in full view of the TV cameras, was letting his displeasure be known after he got back to the dugout in the 10th.

"He was yelling, I think to the dugout, our dugout," Rodney said. "I don't know what he was saying. I'm just trying to do my job."

Maddon told the Tampa Bay Times: "It seems like Miguel might have been upset, and I really don't know why, but it looked like he was. You'd have to ask him specifically because there was no ill intent going on out there.

"I was just watching the whole thing. I was kind of surprised actually."

John Lowe writes for the Detroit Free Press, a Gannett property.