Boston Red Sox
MLB comes down hard on Red Sox, Rays
01:00 AM EDT on Saturday, June 7, 2008
BOSTON — Major League Baseball has suspended Coco Crisp for seven games, Jon Lester for five games and Sean Casey for three games for their actions in Thursday night’s bench-clearing brawl between the Red Sox and Rays.
Five members of the Rays were suspended: Pitcher James Shields for six games, outfielder Jonny Gomes and pitcher Edwin Jackson for five games each, outfielder Carl Crawford for four games and second baseman Akinori Iwamura for three games.
Crisp charged the mound in the second inning of Thursday’s 7-1 victory over the Rays after being struck in the leg by Shields. Shields was acting in retaliation for a hard slide by Crisp into Iwamura the night before. Crisp had been angered by Tampa Bay shortstop Jason Barlett’s move to block the second-base bag with his knee in an earlier stolen-base attempt, which resulted in a sprained thumb for Crisp.
Crisp appealed the penalty and was in last night’s starting lineup.
After the fight, Lester hit Crawford with a breaking pitch in the fifth inning, then later threw behind the legs of Willy Aybar and threw up-and-in to Cliff Floyd. While he was not disciplined by plate umpire Jeff Kellogg, MLB imposed the suspension for those acts.
Lester indicated he would not appeal the penalty, which will cost him one start.
Casey was seen in videos delivering several punches to Rays players during the brawl. He plans to appeal.
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