Projo Sports Blog

BY SEAN McADAM
Journal Sports Writer

BOSTON -- Major League Baseball has suspended Coco Crisp for seven games, Jon Lester for five games and Sean Casey for three games for their actions in Thursday night’s bench-clearing brawl between the Red Sox and Rays.

Five members of the Rays were suspended: Pitcher James Shields for six games, outfielder Jonny Gomes and pitcher Edwin Jackson for five games each, outfielder Carl Crawford for four games and second baseman Akinori Iwamura for three games.

Crisp charged the mound in the second inning of Thursday’s 7-1 victory over the Rays after being struck in the leg by Shields. Shields was acting in retaliation for a hard slide by Crisp into Iwamura the night before. Crisp had been angered by Tampa Bay shortstop Jason Barlett's move to block the second-base bag with his knee in an earlier stolen-base attempt, which resulted in a sprained thumb for Crisp.

Crisp was unaware of the suspension when approached by reporters, saying, "I don’t know nothing about it yet. Seven days? I don’t know nothing about it. That’s what you’re saying."

When asked if he would appeal, he reiterated that he knew nothing about it. When asked if he was interested in hearing which Tampa Bay players were suspended, he replied: "No, not really. It doesn’t matter to me."

As he walked away, he was told of the penalty by John Blake, the Red Sox' vice president of media relations. Crisp turned back to the media members, said, "Damn. You guys were right," and continued walking away.

Crisp appealed the penalty and is in tonight's starting lineup.

After the fight, Lester hit Crawford with a breaking pitch in the fifth inning, then later threw behind the legs of Willy Aybar and threw up-and-in to Cliff Floyd. While he was not disciplined by plate umpire Jeff Kellogg, MLB imposed the suspension for those acts.

Lester indicated he would not appeal the penalty, which will cost him one start.

"It [stinks]," said Lester. "You’ve got to take it, though. There’s nothing I can really do about it."

It is not known the specific reason why Casey was suspended, though he was in the middle of the dustup Thursday night. He does plan to appeal.

"I think I’m going to appeal it and see why I got what I got, go through the process," said Casey, whose suspension is not scheduled to begin until June 14. (When multiple players from a single team are suspended, MLB will stagger the penalties so a team isn't overly shorthanded.) "I’m going to find out why and then I’ll know what they saw. I was pretty surprised."

The Red Sox are incredulous about the severity of the penalties and have already been in contact with Major League Baseball to protest.

Joe McDonald contributed to this report.

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