Mark Teixeira has words for former teammate Vicente Padilla as Rangers pitcher hits him a second time.
Mark Teixeira goes hard into second after getting hit by pitch, forcing Elvis Andrus' bad throw that keeps inning alive and inspires Yanks
Mark Teixeira gets hit twice, fires up Yankees with slide in win over Texas
BY Anthony Mccarron
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
Tuesday, June 2nd 2009, 10:35 PM
Keivom/News
Mark Teixeira has words for former teammate Vicente Padilla as Rangers pitcher hits him a second time.
Mark Teixeira goes hard into second after getting hit by pitch, forcing Elvis Andrus' bad throw that keeps inning alive and inspires Yanks. Stubblebine/Reuters
Mark Teixeira goes hard into second after getting hit by pitch, forcing Elvis Andrus' bad throw that keeps inning alive and inspires Yanks.
A.J. Burnett strikes out eight over seven innings to improve to 4-2. Keivom/News
A.J. Burnett strikes out eight over seven innings to improve to 4-2.
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Mark Teixeira called it "a good coincidence" that his hard slide into second base came right after he was plunked for the second time by his nemesis, Vicente Padilla.
For the Yankees, the slide was much more - it was probably the key moment in their 12-3 victory over the Rangers Tuesday night. It was a game in which both teams were warned after A.J. Burnett retaliated for Teixeira's bruises by throwing high and tight to Nelson Cruz.
Teixeira upended Texas shortstop Elvis Andrus, his clean slide breaking up a potential double play, keeping alive the Yanks' seven-run fourth inning and setting off a celebration in the Yankee dugout. On the play, Derek Jeter scored the 1,500th run of his career to snap a 3-3 tie, and the Yanks went on to win for the 16th time in 20 games.
Hideki Matsui and Jorge Posada each whacked a three-run homer and Burnett gave up three runs in seven innings as the Yankees improved to 31-21, the best record in the American League. The only blemish on the night for the Yanks was Posada's throwing error in the fourth, which ended the team's streak of 18 straight games without a miscue, a major-league record.
Teixeira was on first because Padilla drilled him in the rear with two runners on, continuing a long history of bad blood between two players who were Rangers teammates in 2006-07.
Teixeira slammed his bat on the ground, cursed and yelled, "Throw the ball over the --- plate," judging from television replays. Plate umpire Doug Eddings got in front of Teixeira and walked him partway to first, and Joe Girardi popped out of the dugout.
"Unfortunately that's not the right way to play the game," Teixeira said. "That guy's been doing it his whole career."
Teixeira went on to detail their history: "The first two at-bats of my career (against Padilla, June 9, 2005, when the pitcher was with Philadelphia), I hit home runs. Third at-bat, I got hit. And every time I've faced him since there have been balls near my head, near my body.
"We were teammates for two years. I remember getting hit a lot because he was hitting other players." Teixeira actually asked Padilla to stop hitting players. What was Padilla's response? "Nothing," Teixeira said.
"There's no reason for it in baseball," Teixeira added. "If you can't get a guy out, don't hit him. If you don't want to pitch to a guy, put out four fingers out there and walk him. Unfortunately, when I was a teammate, it happened a lot where he would hit guys and the three-four hitters, those are the guys who get hit and I got hit plenty of times."
Teixeira was hit only once while Padilla pitched as a Ranger - May 31, 2007 - but he was thrown at multiple times.
Padilla has initiated brawls in the past by throwing close to batters. On Sept. 16, 2007, he hit Nick Swisher, who was then with Oakland. It incited a fight that led to both players being ejected. Sounds like part of the reason Swisher was not in the starting lineup, although Girardi said he was giving Swisher a day off.
Much has been made of the Yankees' team chemistry this season, and Burnett might have done more for it by throwing near Cruz in the fifth than he did with all of his whipped cream pies combined. When Teixeira was asked if the purpose pitch made him feel like Burnett's got his back, he replied, "Oh, yeah. A.J.'s a veteran pitcher. I think there was a little message sent."
Burnett sent a message with his pitching, too, allowing three runs and eight hits - half of them in the third inning - in seven innings. He has beaten the Rangers in consecutive starts.
"All that matters is winning the game," Teixeira said. "Play the game the right way, that's the way we played. We scored a lot of runs today and A.J. was great."
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