Buster Posey did a very un-Buster-Posey-like thing Sunday afternoon when he was drilled in the bottom of the eighth inning by Phillies reliever Hector Neris.
Posey, known nationally for his stoic personality, unusually jawed back at Neris down the first base line, asking if he had hit him on purpose. After the game, he stunned reporters by continuing to voice his distaste in the clubhouse.
“I’m pretty certain that he hit me on purpose,” Posey said. “It’s just a shame because I wanted to compete that at-bat. He’s got good stuff, but I guess he didn’t feel like he could get me out.”
Neris denied hitting Posey on purpose after the game, saying that there was no chance and he didn’t want to put the game on the line. There were two runners on base with two outs when Posey came up to the plate.
It takes something drastic for an almost always even-tempo Posey to express that much emotion. Mike Krukow joined Murph and Mac on 680 Monday morning where he delved into why Posey was so frustrated.
“He was ticked off,” said Krukow. “It hurt to get hit the way he did. He got buried with about 95 with two-seam movement on it, which means it’s going to be a heavy feel when you get hit with that kind of spin off the ball. It got him good. It surprised him. You’re not thinking you’re going to get drilled in that situation. He asked Neris three times, ‘Did you do that on purpose?’ He never got an answer but he didn’t have to. He thought it was on purpose which it could’ve been.
“It ticked him off and he took it right into the postgame comments. I think he was frustrated with a lot of things. I think that was one of them, but not all of the things he was frustrated — he was ticked off the way they lost that game.”
Listen to the full podcast below. To hear Krukow’s thoughts on Posey, skip to 0:45.