Things got a little heated between the Giants and Marlins on Tuesday night.
It all began when the Giants elected to plunk Marlins outfielder Lewis Brinson on the first pitch of his opening at-bat, in retaliation (we assume) for Brinson flipping his bat and yelling at Hunter Strickland after hitting a game-tying RBI single in the ninth inning Monday night.
Marlins manager Don Mattingly was heated after Brinson was hit, and according to the Giants broadcast, told Buster Posey he’d be next. Lo and behold, Posey was hit a half inning later by Marlins starter Dan Straily, who was promptly tossed from the game.
It turns out, however, that Mattingly never told Posey he’d be next, and that Mike Krukow’s initial report was incorrect. The Giants broadcaster explained the situation, and said he’d apologize to Mattingly today, when he joined Murph & Mac Wednesday morning.
Mike Krukow explains that Bochy was upset when Posey got hit because Mattingly looked over at Posey after Brinson got hit and said “You’re next.”
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) June 20, 2018
“Well the information that we got was that, and the information that we got on that was wrong,” Krukow said. “We reported it as if it was correct given the source that we heard it from was a reliable source. I’m glad that what we found out after the game talking to the Giants people, he did not say that. What he said was ‘somebody’s getting it tonight or tomorrow.’ You say well what’s the difference they are both inflammatory? Well they are. He didn’t single out Posey so we stand corrected and I’m going to go in today and talk to Mattingly and apologize for that.
“As inflammatory as ‘we’re going to get somebody whether it be tonight or tomorrow’ is, it’s not as bad as ‘we’re getting you.’ So that’s our bad, and we intend to make amends for that today.”
Krukow also said he did not believe that Straily’s pitch, which hit Posey in the left arm, was too high.
“First of all when Mattingly says that, if I’m Buster Posey, I’m putting some armor on and he did. And I don’t think that was too high, he hit him in the arm, it was below the shoulder. To me that’s the significant line. The line is the top of your shoulder. If it’s above that it’s a bad effort, if it’s below that to me it’s acceptable. And Posey, professionally, got up, and went down to first base, it was over, so that’s where it stands coming into today’s ballgame. I don’t think there’s going to be any residue. It’ll be interesting to see if the umpires issue a warning prior to the first pitch. If it’s up to the umpires I would doubt that they would. If the league gets involved and they tell the umpires that’s how you are going to do it, of course there will be a warning issued.
“You know it adds to the flavor of the relationship to a club and both sides are absolutely testy. But when you lose a player like Longoria to a broken bone, to me those are the two words that absolutely stand out in this whole thing. Broken bone. And this guy is gone for a considerable amount of time and that affects the Giants ability to win ball games, so I kind’ve think they get the short end of the stick on this thing. In the grand rules, the unwritten rules of baseball I think the scores have been settled. It’ll be interesting to see where they go from here.”
Listen to the full interview below. To hear Krukow on Mattingly, start from 6:05.
