Boston-N.Y. nastiness starts up
The Yankees and Red Sox got into a little war of plunk Wednesday night, with both sides getting warned by game's end. I didn't see David Riske's pitch, so I can't speak to intent there, but did see Tanyon Sturtze's shot and there is no confusing the message with that pitch; he's the Yankees' version of an enforcer.
There are so many new players -- new relievers, in particular -- on the two teams, and they will tend to be overaggressive in reacting to somebody's getting hit by a pitch in this rivalry. It will be as if Kyle Farnsworth and Julian Tavarez and the others joined a fraternity fight, they know all their new house brothers are watching and they feel a need to demonstrate their toughness. There's almost no doubt that they will have incidents this year, and you almost can assume that Farnsworth or Tavarez or Sturtze will be in the middle of something.
Jonathan Papelbon was impressive. Jorge Posada has a broken nose after a freak accident, but he's expected to be ready at the start of the season.
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Buster Olney
