SAN FRANCISCO–Buster Posey is rarely critical, so when he is, his words carry weight.
And on Sunday afternoon, the Giants’ All-Star catcher stole headlines when he said that Phillies’ closer Hector Neris hit him with a pitch in the bottom of the eighth inning on purpose. Posey believed Neris felt he couldn’t get him out, and after Sunday’s game, he made his thoughts heard loud and clear.
“I’m pretty certain that he hit me on purpose,” Posey said. “It’s just a shame because I wanted to compete that at-bat. He’s got good stuff, but I guess he didn’t feel like he could get me out.”
On Monday evening, Giants’ manager Bruce Bochy was asked if he was surprised about Posey’s comments, and he gave an emphatic answer. Bochy defended his catcher, and described Neris as an “idiot.”
“It wasn’t just a little inside, you know,” Bochy said. “The same guy, I mean, I’ll say it. He’s an idiot. He showed it in Philadelphia when he was having words with Nunez so I think that caused the radar to be up a little bit on what happened there and it wasn’t a glancing blow. It was on his ribs, on the back side of his ribs, so I’m not surprised. I would have been upset too.”
The incident Bochy is referring to between Neris and former Giants’ third baseman Eduardo Nunez took place back in June when the Giants played in Philadelphia, as the two apparently exchanged words that led to frustration on both sides.
Bochy wasn’t sure if Neris hit Posey in retaliation for the incident that took place back in June, but he indicated that he thought Neris plunked Posey intentionally.
“You never know for sure, but it certainly didn’t look good, did it?” Bochy said. “Anyway, that’s behind us. We had a chance to win that ballgame and get back and we couldn’t do it.”
Bochy told reporters on Monday that Posey has sore ribs, but that he’s out of the lineup on a scheduled day off. Posey started behind the plate on Saturday evening and then again on Sunday afternoon, so the manager and his catcher agreed that Monday’s game would be a good opportunity to rest.
“Yeah, I think general soreness but he was getting a scheduled day off,” Bochy said. “We went day game after a night game, so we talked about it a few days ago and said let’s run it out there the weekend and take Monday off. With the day game it’s almost like getting two days off. It gives him a chance to freshen up.”
