Sox and Rays Light It Up. Again.

In honor of James Shields' not-so-triumphant return last night from his 6-game suspension for his part in Red Sox-Rays Fight Night 2008, let's take a look back at the bad blood between the clubs. Last week's dustup was just the most recent in a long line of tussles that the Sox and Rays have managed to work themselves into. Here are the highlights of the near decade-long feud:

August 29, 2000
Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez drilled leadoff Rays' batter Gerald Williams on his hand in the bottom of the 1st inning. Williams charged the mound, first shoving and then punching Martinez... and incited a full-scale brawl that ended up getting 8 Rays ejected from the game, and sending 2 Sox players to the hospital. The Rays argued Sox player Brian Daubauch took cheap shots at Rays players in the melee. Martinez maintained a zen front when asked about retaliation, stating "I asked a couple players on the bench and they said, "Let's just win the game," he said in an interview with a Boston TV crew. "But there will be some other day." Martinez ended up 1-hitting the Rays.


July 18, 2002
It was a day for double drillings - both Manny Ramirez (Sox) and Brian Abernathy (Rays) each got hit by pitches... twice. Tanyon Sturtze drilled Ramirez in the second inning. Frank Castillo drilled Abernathy in the third. Tim Wakefield then hit Abernathy again in the seventh... and Esteban Yan returned the favor by hitting Ramirez again in the ninth. Yan got the heave-ho, and was ejected.

September 27, 2004
Late in what would be the Red Sox championship season, the Sox and Rays got into yet another squabble in Tampa. Bronson Arroyo has a typical Bronson inning in the bottom of the third, throwing a wild pitch to Rocco Baldelli-- and hit both Aubrey Huff and Tino Martinez. Scott Kazmir returned to the mound in the top of the fourth carrying a no-hitter, but quickly drilled Manny Ramirez and Kevin Millar in succession- triggering a nonviolent benches-clearing standoff. Kazmir got the boot... and the Sox went on to win the claim and clinch a playoff berth. (The Rays would go on to plunk Bill Mueller and Kevin Millar again the following day.)


April 24, 2005
Sox sluggers David Ortiz and Eduardo Perez showboated their homeruns a little too much for the Rays liking, and Rays reliever Lance Carter chunked a ball behind Manny Ramirez. Unfortunately for him, Manny responded by hitting a homerun. Carter then buzzed Ortiz, the next batter - prompting Papi to take a few too many menacing steps towards the mound. The benches cleared. Trot Nixon and Dewon Brazelton engaged in some fisticuffs. And Curt Schilling was prompted to start a war of words with Rays manager Lou Piniella over the state of the Rays as a team.


March 27, 2006
The most infamous incident in the rivalry between the Sox and the Rays occurred, oddly enough, during a spring training game. Rays baserunner Joey Gathright slid home while pitcher Julian Tavarez covered the plate and tagged him with the ball. Tavarez steps on Gathright's arm - according to Gathright, unprovoked... and according to Tavarez, in anticipation of Gathright throwing a punch.

"I saw him try to get up and I wasn't going to let him throw a punch at me right away," said Tavarez, who threw a second punch on the top of Gathright's head. "You hear about whoever throws the first punch gets the win. That's what happened."

In the Devil Rays clubhouse, Gathright rolled up his right sleeve to show a small scratch on his right forearm. He said he had pushed Tavarez's left knee to try to free his arm. But Tavarez drew his fist back with Gathright's right knee and hand still on the ground.

"It just kind of grazed the jaw," Gathright said.

Tavarez punched twice at Gathright, without making serious contact -- but serious enough to land him a 10-game suspension from the league. In a bit of foreshadowing:

Tampa Bay designated hitter Jonny Gomes said he hopes no bad blood remains between the teams when they play April 18 in Boston.

"I hope not," he said. "but we're grown men out here and you never know who's holding a grudge."