When Nelson Cruz was hit by a pitch in the ninth inning of the Rangers win over the Royals on Monday, nobody was surprised. Earlier in the game, Cruz hit a towering home run off of Bruce Chen and stood at home plate for a moment to admire it. Opposing pitchers generally dislike being shown up like that, so many thought Kansas City reliever Louis Coleman did what he had to do in plunking the Rangers slugger. Cruz disagreed.
As soon as he was hit in the back, Cruz stared at Coleman and began walking toward the mound. The benches cleared and everything remained under control, but Royals announcers for Fox Sports Kansas City Ryan Lefebvre and Rex Hudler blasted Cruz anyway.
“That might have something to do with all the time it took Nelson Cruz to get out of the batter’s box when he homered in the sixth inning,” they said according to the Dallas Morning News. “You don’t need to stand there that long against Bruce Chen. You’re not that good.”
Cruz said he knows he watched the ball a little bit but fluffed it off by saying “everybody does it.” The broadcast team clearly did not share the same opinion, and they even blasted Cruz for acting like he was going to charge the mound and not doing it.
“If you want a piece of him, go get him.”
“I agree with you 100 percent. If you’re going to charge the mound, don’t stand there and wait for someone to grab you. Go get him.”
We’ve shown you some pretty heated baseball fights over the years here at LBS, but in this particular instance it appears no one was more angry than the home team’s announcers. As for the brawl itself, I’ve seen more aggression in a pillow fight.
