Giants' Strickland on altercation with Royals' Perez: 'My emotions got the best of me'
San Francisco Giants reliever Hunter Strickland lost his cool with Kansas City catcher Salvador Perez in the sixth inning of a 7-2 Game 2 loss to the Royals, and spoke about the incident following the game.
"My emotions got the best of me," Strickland said. "He (Perez) has pride. I have pride. You can't take it back."
Perez, whose first language is Spanish, was running the bases when Omar Infante hit a no-doubter into the stands to give the Royals a 7-2 lead. He seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time when Strickland had a meltdown.
Perez says he was surprised Strickland was saying anything to him -"Omar hit the home run." Doesn't know what Strickland was saying.
— Susan Slusser (@susanslusser) October 23, 2014
Perez's teammate, Mike Moustakas, had a very candid take on Strickland losing his cool.
Moustakas on Hunter Strickland's words: "All I heard was the ball leaving the yard."
— Rustin Dodd (@rustindodd) October 23, 2014
Giants manager Bruce Bochy didn't exactly come to the defense of his 26-year-old right-hander during his post-game press conference, either.
"He's a really intense kid. That's probably an area he's going to have to keep his poise."- #SFGiants' manager Bruce Bochy on Strickland.
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) October 23, 2014
Strickland told reporters he was frustrated with himself for surrendering his fifth home run of the postseason and summed the shouting match that resulted in the partial clearing of benches up as a miscommunication.
Perez also took the opportunity after the contest to announce he's not afraid of retaliation from Strickland or any other Giants hurler later in the series.
Salvy, when asked if Strickland was trying to intimidate him, said "The only one who intimidates me is God."
— Joel Goldberg (@goldbergkc) October 23, 2014