Game 1 of the American League Division Series didn't go off without some fireworks.
After fanning Juan Uribe with one out and the bases loaded in the seventh inning of a three-run game, Tampa Bay reliever Grant Balfour appeared to be yelling on the mound in excitement, as well as making gestures toward Uribe like "get out of there." The next batter, Orlando Cabrera took exception to that, and during his at-bat kicked dirt in Balfour's direction -- "to challenge him." Balfour fanned Cabrera, however, and then definitely started yelling in his direction and making gestures, pointing Cabrera back to the dugout. Meanwhile, there was shouting going on at first base, where A.J. Pierzynski. It looked as if Rays first baseman Willy Aybar and Pierzynski were trading words, but it was in fact interim first base coach Omer Munoz, who allegedly told Rays catcher Dioner Navarro to "take your pitcher back into the dugout."
The testosterone kept flowing, and Rays bench coach Dave Martinez had to be restrained as he pointed into the Sox dugout.
"It was nothing, it was just a moment of heat on the battlefield," Cabrera said. "We were trying to challenge each other. Apparently, he likes to be challenged. So I was just trying to take his mind out of the game, something like that, and just challenge him a little bit and he won, he won the battle.
"They said he always gets pumped up like that. He said the 'F' word to the hitter every time he swings at his pitch. I didn't know that. I was just pumped up."
Munoz did his best to stay out of it, saying afterward that he had no idea what happened, and Balfour also did a good job of downplaying it.
"(Cabrera) showed me up first," the pitcher said. "He was the one that kicked dirt at me. I'm the same pitcher I've been all year. I talk to myself a lot out there, no one else. That's not going to change."
Sox manager Ozzie Guillen and Rays skipper Joe Maddon did run across each other between postgame interviews, and Maddon did explain to Guillen that it was just the way Balfour was, and he wasn't trying to offend anyone.
Considering Guillen also encourages his players to be themselves, it was a dead issue as far as he was concerned.
RAYS 6, WHITE SOX 4: Dewayne Wise proved to be the right man in the lineup for manager Ozzie Guillen in Game 1, homering in the third inning, but the Sox were once again missing out on the clutch hit. All four Sox runs were courtesy of the long ball -- no surprise there.
As for the pitching performance from Javier Vazquez, well, if Guillen still has confidence in Vazquez this postseason, he might be the only one. The right-hander continued to get swallowed up in the big moment, and has now lost his last four starts -- all huge ones.
