“That was never intended to be a brush-back pitch.”
Why do you say that? Both Ryan and Pudge say it was and they are the ones that are in on the strategy of that part of the game and say it was nothing more than the same thing Ryan had been doing for over 25 years. If they dive at the outside corner, the inside pitch takes it away. It’s a tactic used by pitchers since long before we were born.
Besides, if Ryan really wanted to get him, he’d have throw at his ankles. That’s a favorite tool used by pitchers if they were doing a real payback and not a warning. If a pitcher was going to go after someone, they, at that level, don’t want to kill anyone by hitting them in the head. This isn’t little league, it’s MLB. The pitch was a message, not an attack. But the press builds it up that way to get butts in the seats for the next game.
rwood
>> Why do you say that? <<
Look at the pitch.