This evening the Tampa Rays come to Camden Yards to play the Orioles in a Labor Day weekend series in crab town. Matt Garza gets the ball tonight for Tampa in game one against Kevin Millwood for the Orioles. The last time the O's saw Garza was at Oriole Park on July20th; long story short, the O's beat Tampa 11-10 that night on the heels of back-to-back-t0-back homers. I'll leave it at that, as well as with Garza's comments in this morning's St. Petersburg Times:
"I owe them a lot of payback for the type of outing I had last time against them," he said. "They had back-to-back-to-back. So I'm going to make them feel really uncomfortable in the box. So they know, this (stuff) doesn't happen, so don't get used to it...I'm going to go in there, hair on fire, like I have been and go after them and say, 'Hey, you got me the first time, well I'm going to shove it down your throat this time.' "
Let's stop and think about this for a moment; it's the Orioles' fault that Garza pitched like garbage and got shelled last time? On one hand, one might argue that shows how little regard people have for the Orioles around the league (until the hiring of Buck Showalter that is). It's almost been an embarrassment when the Orioles have beaten you. However, those are some pretty strong words coming from any pitcher with regard to any other team. The O's and Rays renew aquaintances 18 times a year...seriously, how stupid is Matt Garza? I almost want to laugh it off as nothing because the guy's dumb enough to say something like that. You're coming into the Orioles' stadium to play in front of the Orioles' fans, and you're going to make a comment like that?!
Baltimore's always been a tough blue collar town, and that needs to be on display tonight and all weekend. I'm not particularly fond of the Rays seeing that they're a division opponent, however it's on now! If I were Carl Crawford or Carlos Pena, I wouldn't be too happy with Garza right now. If he thinks that he's going to make it "uncomfortable" for Orioles batters while they're in the box, or "shove it down their throats," I would interpret that as saying that he was going to pitch inside. That being the case, does anyone among us think that the O's won't retaliate by hitting someone such as Pena or Crawford? Speaking for myself, I don't believe in hitting people just for the sake of it, but there's a time and a place for everything. The Orioles may not be in contention, however there's no reason that an opposing player should ever be allowed to say something like that without being taught a lesson. Rather than flat out blaming the Orioles for having the nerve to beat him around like they did in July, perhaps Garza should have reviewed the tape and learned from the experience. That's what the likes of Brian Matusz, Brad Bergesen, and Jake Arrieta have been doing all season (not to mention Chris Tillman). But since Garza's perfect, he'd rather blame the Orioles.
Maybe I'm overdoing this a bit, but with good reason. I have a real problem with athletes giving other teams what you might call "bulletin board material." Furthermore, I consider myself to be a person that has pretty thick skin. You could tell me that I was the village idiot, and I'd probably agree with you; in other words, I don't get offended by much. However I take an incredible amount of umbrage at this. As I said above, so far as I'm concerned, it's on. If Matt Garza wants to hold the Oriole hitters accountable for his poor pitching, I say BRING IT. The way I see things, our team and by extension our city is being attacked by this low life, and the O's owe it to the people of Baltimore to bring him what Arlo Guthrie called blind American justice in Alice's Restaurant. By that, I mean that we need to shove it down HIS throat again, as well as up his derriere.
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