Farnsworth

BOSTON — In Major League Baseball’s opinion, Kyle Farnsworth did, indeed, throw a pitch at Manny Ramirez in Thursday night’s game at New York. And as a result, the Yankees reliever has been suspended for three games and fined an undisclosed amount, MLB’s vice president of on-field operations Bob Watson announced yesterday.

Although Farnsworth’s suspension was scheduled to begin with last night’s Yankees-Orioles matchup at Camden Yards, his discipline is on hold as he has decided to file an appeal.

Surprisingly, the alleged target of the pitch apparently doesn’t agree with the ruling either.

“I don’t think he deserves that,” Ramirez said prior to last night’s game against the Texas Rangers. “He was just trying to protect his players. We hit A-Rod [Wednesday] night. When you’ve got a guy on your team like that on your team, you’re going to protect him.”

Ramirez — whose 160 RBI are the most collected against the same team by any active player and whose 55 home runs against the Yankees are the most he’s hit against any one team in his career — had been taking New York’s pitchers to task that night, going 3-for-5 with two home runs, three RBI and three runs scored in the 7-5 Boston win.

He began by belting a solo homer to center field off Yankees starter Mike Mussina in the top of the second.

The next inning, Ramirez tagged Mussina for a two-out, two-run blast to deep left in a four-run third that gave the Sox a commanding 5-0 lead.

After the Sox’ slugger got his third straight hit of the night with a line-drive single to left off right-handed reliever Jonathan Albaladejo in the fifth, he stepped to the plate in the seventh against Farnsworth, who proceeded to deliver a 97-mph fastball high and inside, very close to Ramirez’s head.

“To be honest with you, I didn’t even see the pitch,” said Ramirez, who worked a full count and ended up grounding out to second in the at-bat. “I just stay in the same place. … That’s just how the game is played. You hit one of their guys, they are going to hit one of yours.”

Opting not to eject Farnsworth, home plate umpire Larry Vanover instead issued warnings to both dugouts. But the league undoubtedly felt Farnsworth’s high heater warranted disciplinary action, given that it came after Ramirez had belted two homers against New York, as well as one night after Red Sox reliever David Aardsma hit Alex Rodriguez in the back with a pitch five innings after the Yankee third baseman homered off Boston’s Clay Buchholz.

Farnsworth, however, insists it was not intentional.

“Intentionally, huh?,” the 32-year-old right-hander is quoted as saying in a story that appeared on the New York Yankees Web site. “The ball slipped, and as far as I know, I didn’t hit him. If I’m going to hit somebody, it’s not going to be in the head, that’s for sure. I don’t want to endanger anybody’s career, and that’s definitely not a hitter you throw at.”

This marks the third time in his 10-year major-league career that Farnsworth has been suspended. In 2003 while playing for the Chicago Cubs, he was ejected and given a two-game suspension after a bench-clearing brawl involving Paul Wilson in a June 19 game at Cincinnati.

Two years later, while pitching for the Detroit Tigers, Farnsworth was ejected for his role in a bench-clearing brawl July 17 against Kansas City. He received a five-game suspension following that incident, which he served with Atlanta after being traded to the Braves two weeks later in exchange for right-handers Roman Colon and Zach Miner.

Asked if he was surprised by the decision by Major League Baseball, Sox manager Terry Francona steered clear of passing judgment on anyone.

“That’s not my area,” he said. “I try to keep those guys away from me. That’s none of my business.”

cthorn@projo.com