Revenge can be sweet and the Toronto Blue Jays finally achieved a measure of it in last night's game when starter Josh Towers plunked New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez in the knee with an inside pitch.
The incident - accidental or not - resulted in the benches and bullpens on both teams emptying on two occasions before order was finally restored.
But the moment soured considerably for Toronto with the Yankees again enjoying the last laugh, pounding out 14 hits en route to an easy 9-2 victory to take the second game of the three-game set against the Blue Jays at a sultry Rogers Centre.
"Absolutely not," Towers said afterward, when asked if he was trying to send Rodriguez a message with his wayward pitch. "I was just trying to pitch inside. It was a key situation. Alex is a power hitter and you've got to pitch those guys inside and it just got away a little bit."
So, too, perhaps, is Towers' status as a starter in the Blue Jays rotation.
With injured starter A.J. Burnett slated to make his return to the lineup against the Kansas City Royals on Sunday, somebody will have to be dropped from the rotation and Towers, whose record dipped to 5-9 with his third consecutive loss, is a prime candidate.
And while Towers was not ejected for his misfire, Yankees starter Roger Clemens was later in the game for his own beanball.
Clemens was tossed in the seventh inning of the elongated and often nasty affair - along with New York manager Joe Torre - after Clemens nailed Toronto leadoff hitter Alex Rios squarely in the back with a pitch.
New York was leading 7-0 at the time and Clemens was hurling a two-hitter en route to improving his record to 4-5.
Clemens' deed came after Toronto reliever Brian Tallet hit New York's Robinson Cano with a pitch in the top of the seventh.
Rodriguez, the Yankees third baseman, is considered public enemy No. 1 in the Jays' clubhouse for his shenanigans on May 30 in Toronto when he distracted Howie Clark by yelling something as he was running the bases that allowed an infield pop fly to drop.
Last night's game was the sixth between the two clubs since the infamous incident but it marked the first time Rodriguez has faced any form of direct retribution.
During Monday's opening game of the series, which the Yankees also won, Rodriguez had to dodge a pitch that was thrown behind his legs by Toronto pitcher Jesse Litsch.
The fun and games last night began in the third inning after New York's Bobby Abreu tripled to the wall in left-centre that scored Johnny Damon from second base to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead.
That brought A-Rod to the plate, and with the pro Blue Jays gathering clamouring for some sort of payback Towers obliged and on his first pitch plunked the Yankee third baseman in the leg.
Rodriguez stared menacingly at Towers and appeared to mutter a few choice words as he took a couple of steps toward the Toronto pitcher.
Towers yapped back and defiantly stepped off the mound toward the Yankees player. At that point both benches and bullpens emptied and gathered for a heated discussion around home plate.
"It wasn't intentional but it looked bad and I understand one thousand per cent they're reaction to it," Toronto catcher Gregg Zaun said, summing up the incident.
After a couple of minutes the umpires calmed the players down and play was about to resume with Rodriguez stationed at first base when the brouhaha erupted anew, this time between Towers and Yankees first base coach Tony Pena.
Again, all the players rushed back onto the field to joust for a second time.
"He's a quitter," Towers said of Pena, who used to manage in Kansas City before joining the Yankees. "He's managing a team and quit in the middle of the season because he couldn't hack it and he's going to run his mouth to me?"
Pena just shrugged off Towers' remarks.
"I have no comment," Pena said. "Just let him talk." The tipsheet
2
The number of times both benches and bullpens emptied in the third inning.
The Big Hit
By Toronto pitcher Josh Towers, whose inside pitch plunked Alex Rodriguez in the left knee, which ignited the uprising.
The Big Miss
By losing their second successive game to the Yankees, the Blue Jays failed to prove once again they are contenders in the American League East.