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Roger Mooney

Roger Mooney covers the Tampa Bay Rays for The Tampa Tribune, TBO.com and News Channel 8. He has covered the Rays since their first season in 1998, including 11 years for the Bradenton Herald. Roger has also covered Florida, South Florida and Florida State football, the Bucs and the Lightning.

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Who says spring training is relaxed?

Posted Mar 12, 2007 by Marc Lancaster

Updated Mar 12, 2007 at 03:13 PM

Just had a bit of extracurricular activity here. In the top of the third, Al Reyes hit Placido Polanco with a pitch immediately after surrendering a solo homer to Pudge Rodriguez. In the bottom of the third, Tigers starter Jeremy Bonderman pegged Ty Wigginton in the leg with two outs and the bases empty. Wigginton was none too pleased and gave Bonderman a long stare as he walked slowly to first, then shouted something I couldn’t quite make out with his head turned away from the pitcher. Home plate umpire Chad Fairchild warned both dugouts after that exchange. In the sixth, Steve Andrade hit Gary Sheffield in the back with a pitch, but nothing was made of it.

This is becoming something of a trend with the Tigers, who had a tiff with the Red Sox in similar circumstances Saturday afternoon.

Wigginton, stand-up guy that he is, addressed the matter head-on after coming out of the game, repeating what he yelled into the Rays’ dugout as he walked down the line.

“In the heat of the moment, I said, ‘We can get one of them, too, boys,’” said Wigginton. “I’ve got no problem with how it went down. Getting hit’s part of the game. They hit me the right way. They hit me below the waist. It was good, clean baseball. That’s the way baseball’s supposed to be played. I’ve got a lot of respect for Bonderman. I’ve got a lot of respect for the Tigers and the way they play the game. I thought they went about it the right way.”

Asked if he would have liked to have seen the Rays retaliate quicker, Wigginton pondered the question for a while and said, “no comment.”

He later added: “I think it’s respecting the game of baseball when you stand up for your teammates. I’m not going to come straight out and tell a pitcher to hurt somebody. You never want to see anybody get hurt on a baseball field for either team.”