After missing the first 17 innings of the Texas Rangers first 2013 series against his former team, the Chicago White Sox, new Rangers catcher A.J. Pierzynski finally got a chance to put the hurt on his old team as a pinch-hitter with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning of a game the White Sox had a 5-2 lead in on Wednesday night.
Instead, Pierzynski's former battery mate put the hurt on him.
After missing the first two games of the series (he's scheduled to start the finale Thursday) with a bruised oblique, White Sox closer Addison Reed drilled Pierzynski just a few inches away from the injury to put the long-time White Sox catcher on first base.
Pierzynski slung the bat and had some, what appeared to be, pointed words on his way to first base but after the game wrote off the incident as just part of the game.
"I'm sure they were trying to pitch me inside and it just got away," Pierzynski told the media after the game. "There were two outs and we were down by three runs."
Reed and White Sox manager/famous hit-by-pitch reactor Robin Ventura concurred, saying there was no intent behind the pitch even after it was reported by several folks on Twitter Tuesday night that Pierzynski was on the rail in the Rangers' dugout chirping loudly at any White Sox player that made it to first base.
Pierzynski, mad or not, will have his chance for payback against his former teammates on Thursday in the teams' final meeting until August when the Rangers travel to the south side of Chicago.
