Workman appealing suspension; Papi weighs in

CLEVELAND -- Red Sox right-hander Brandon Workman appealed the six-game suspension he received Tuesday and will start the finale of a three-game series against the Indians on Wednesday night.

Workman was suspended and fined for throwing a pitch behind Rays third baseman Evan Longoria last Friday at Fenway after both sides had been warned in the bottom of the first inning. The warning came after David Price had hit David Ortiz in the back with a pitch.

Joe Garagiola Jr., senior vice president of standards and operations for Major League Baseball, made the announcement.

"I really didn't know what to expect," said Workman. "That's their decision. We're going to appeal it. I knew beforehand that if you get ejected, automatically you get a fine, I didn't know about a suspension, I was kind of waiting to see. It wasn't intentional, it was raining, the ball slipped out of my hand. They can take that into consideration."

Ortiz was displeased that Price wasn't suspended by MLB. After Price hit Ortiz and received the warning, he later hit Mike Carp in the right forearm and was not ejected. And that was before Workman's pitch to Longoria.

"I don't even know what to say," Ortiz said. "I mean, he started everything up and we've got to pay for it, basically. That's the message that I'm getting, right? I don't have any answer about that, but it's like I say, there's way too much evidence now that he hit me on purpose, and the funny thing is that we are the ones that are getting fines, suspensions, all kind of stuff. I guess the rules are not for everyone."

There was some history between Ortiz and Price. In Game 2 of last year's American League Division Series, Ortiz clocked two homers against Price. On the second one, he watched it as it curled around the foul pole, and Price was critical that Ortiz didn't immediately go into his home run trot.

The pitch Price hit Ortiz in the back with Friday was the very first pitch he had thrown to him since the home run in Game 2 of the Division Series.

"I don't care what he does or what he doesn't do from this point on; what I care about is MLB looking at the case from the point where I didn't start this up, Workman didn't start this up. Price did," said Ortiz.

"I know that we presented our case in response to the discussions and what was being talked about with MLB," said Red Sox manager John Farrell. "The suspension is in place but there's a process to appeal and that's what's taken place. Again, you present all the facts and the thoughts and what took place from our perspective and you trust that things will be handled in a way that you might see a certain way. They deemed what they thought was the appropriate way to go."

The Red Sox still wonder why the umpires didn't automatically eject Price after he hit Carp.

"I thought the rules were for everybody. I thought that the minute you figure that somebody hit someone on purpose, the rules that it says right there, you're going to follow up with. In this case, it seems like it isn't," said Ortiz.

Following the game on Friday, crew chief Jeff Kellogg said the umpires didn't deem there was any intent with the pitch that hit Carp.

"Again, if we felt there was intent to hit the batter, he would have been ejected," said Kellogg. "We felt the pitch was certainly inside, but not intentional, so that's why he stayed in the game."

Ortiz reiterated what he said Friday -- that there will be fireworks if Price decides to plunk him again.

"In my case, I made my point clear," said Ortiz. "I'm not going to get hit again, not by him. He did it on purpose, he punked me and that's very disrespectful. I'm a [grown] man, I've been around the league for a long time and I know how to take care of business on my own." 

The Red Sox and Rays play next on July 25 at Tropicana Field.