It was definitely a wild one today at Comerica Park as we saw a pitching dual between two heavyweights in Justin Verlander for Detroit and Jered Weaver of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
Things got heated late when Weaver was ejected for throwing at Alex Avila after a Carlos Guillen home run in which Weaver took exception for. In fact after the Guillen home run both benches were warned by the home plate umpire Hunter Wendelstedt.
The fact of the matter is tensions were high before the Guillen home run.
Earlier in the game, Weaver took exception for Odonez ‘watching’ his home-run.
“I don’t hit many homers any more, so I wanted to make sure that one was going to stay fair,” Ordonez said. “I’m not going to try to show up anyone in this league. That’s not me
“He was yelling at me to run faster,” Ordonez said. “So I told him that I’m old – that’s as fast as I can run.”
According to Chris Iott, Weaver even had words with Cabrera when Cabrera popped out after Ordonez’s homer then had words with Ordonez later in the game when Ordonez popped out.
At that point Carlos Guillen had seen enough of Weaver’s antics…
“I was upset because he was yelling at Magglio when Magglio hit the home run,” Guillen said. “But nobody in the ballpark knows if it’s going fair or foul, so he has to stand maybe at home plate. (Weaver) was yelling, ‘Run, run, you have to run the (expletive) bases.’
“Magglio has 13, 14 years in the big leagues. You don’t have to yell at him.”
After the game Weaver was still hot after what had happen…
“After what Guillen did, I think that just kind of crossed the line a little bit,” Weaver said. “I’m not just going to go out there and take that. I’m a competitor and, like I said, I’m not going out there trying to show anybody up. Never have.
“If that’s the way they want to play the game, then that’s what it is. But I just didn’t appreciate it too much.”
Tigers manager Jim Leyland said he was surprised that Weaver had thrown at Avila considering the circumstances…
“I didn’t think he would, to be honest with you,” Leyland said. “I think he’s a real cool customer. He’s a great pitcher. … I didn’t expect it because, stuff like that, there could be a possible suspension. In a pennant race, you don’t want to lose Jered Weaver.”
Furthermore Leyland said he would look into the situation between Ordonez and Weaver but still feels as though Ordonez did nothing wrong…
“I’ve never seen Magglio Ordonez show anybody up in the six years I’ve been here,” he said. “I’ve never seen it. So I doubt he was doing that today. I really sincerely believe that he was kind of looking to see if it was a foul ball. …
“Now, the second one, I think because of the exchange of words earlier with Magglio, I think Guillen probably put it on him a little bit.”
Source: Mlive.com
