There seemed to be a little bit of passion from at least one player on the White Sox this afternoon.
In the eighth inning of Sunday’s 6-3 loss to the Brewers, the White Sox were attempting to tie up a ballgame in which they were trailing by one run. Corey Julks hit a shallow fly ball to left field, and Tommy Pham was thrown out at home pretty easily. After a collision at home plate, Brewers catcher William Contreras was amped up and made his feelings known to Pham, waving his glove in recognition of the fact that he held onto the ball through the collision.
From there, things got a bit out of hand – but, the benches did not clear. Gavin Sheets and Mike Clevinger were among Pham’s teammates who came out to help coaches diffuse the situation.
Pham, according to a video shot by beat writer Daryl Van Schouwen, took umbrage with what Contreras had to say after the play was over, acknowledging that it was a play he probably should not have ran home on (Pham was sent by third base coach Eddie Rodriguez on the play). Pham then made it clear that he isn’t going to back down from any confrontations in the future.
“I’ll never start anything, but I’ll be prepared to finish it. There’s a reason why I do all kinds of fighting in the offseason, because I’m prepared to fuck somebody up.”
– Tommy Pham (via Daryl Van Schouwen)
White Sox manager Pedro Grifol didn’t have much to say after the incident, only stating that he was okay with Rodriguez’s aggressive send given the game situation.
It’s worth noting that Pham had run well into the infield grass on the play, likely in hopes of having the ball hit off of him knowing it was an aggressive send. But, things didn’t matter too much in the end, as the Brewers tacked on two insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth to put the game away for good.
The play at the plate also distracted from a baserunning blunder earlier in the inning by Zach Remillard, who was thrown out at third for the first out of the inning on a ball that had squirted away from Contreras behind the plate. Before that, the White Sox had runners at first and second with no outs, and Nicky Lopez would proceed to hit a ground-rule double that would precede Julks’ fly ball to left field.
There were no ejections as a result of the play.
Pham walks away from this the man who has shown some of the fire and clubhouse presence the White Sox claimed they were hoping to see from this veteran ballclub. At least his play on the field has also matched his presumed impact in the dugout.
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Featured Image: Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports
