Hunter Dobbins tossed a verbal grenade into the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry and came out the other side with a victory.
The rookie playing for the favorite team of his childhood said ahead of his first start as a visitor in The Bronx on Sunday night that he would “retire” before playing for the Yankees.
The bulletin-board material made its way to the Yankees clubhouse.
“I’ve only heard Ken Griffey [Jr.] say that,” Aaron Judge said when asked for his reaction. “So, surprised.”
Judge made Dobbins pay with a first-inning home run as part of a two-homer, three-hit, four-RBI game, but Dobbins got the last laugh as the winner in an 11-7 victory for the Red Sox.
He allowed three runs over five innings and shook off the return jabs lobbed at him by keenly aware Yankees fans.
“You can’t really say something like that and not expect a passionate fan base like the Yankees’ to say something,” Dobbins said. “If anything, it made the rivalry atmosphere feel a lot more fun. I enjoyed it a lot. Looking forward to more of it in the future to kind of get this rivalry going.”
The Yankees were taken aback by Dobbins telling the Boston Herald that “if the Yankees were the last team to give me a contract, I’d retire.”
“I don’t think I would ever say that. I feel like that closes doors,” Jazz Chisholm Jr. said. “I like it, though. I like the competitiveness.”
Chisholm spread the word to teammates before Sunday’s game that “we’re going to kick some ass.”
But those plans were interrupted by a 25-year-old right-hander who inherited his Red Sox fandom.
Dobbins (3-1) told the Herald that his father, Lance, befriended Yankees great Andy Pettitte during his own minor league career.
“Dad was a die-hard Red Sox fan growing up,” Dobbins said. “Drafted by the Red Sox, you always look forward to pitching in the rivalry. It was a lot of fun.”
Was Dobbins’ trash talk on Judge’s mind before his first-inning homer?
He found out about it at the ballpark.
“Once somebody tells you,” the captain said, “yeah.”
You can imagine the reaction of Dobbins’ agent, who certainly knows that if his client pitches well enough to one day become a sought-after free agent then it’s good business to engage the Yankees in a bidding war.
The reaction of Yankees fans to Dobbins’ pregame introduction was surprisingly tame — perhaps an indication that his words hadn’t yet reached the masses.
The jeers that reached Dobbins’ ear were “nothing absurd or out of the norm.”
Chisholm, a Yankees fan favorite, was in the midst of further discussing the comments during ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball” broadcast booth when he made a throwing error during the third inning.
“To say that, being a rookie, is kind of crazy to me,” Chisholm said. “The Yankees is one of the best sports franchises in the entire world, so I don’t think that’s even possible that the only team to offer you a job is the Yankees.”
After 11 years in the rivalry as a player and coach, Red Sox manager Alex Cora expected Dobbins might face some vitriol.
“It’s going to be hostile anyway,” Cora said. “He just added a little bit more, I guess.”
Manager Aaron Boone was nearly at a loss for words when reacting to Dobbins’ anti-Yankees stance.
“He’s young. We’ll leave it at that,” Boone laughed. “I don’t think it’s a dig at our players. It’s an interesting comment as a player to make that, but I think it’s a comment of his love of his team.”
Chisholm is the Yankees’ resident instigator, having earned his boos in the playoffs at Kansas City last October by saying the Royals “got lucky” to win Game 2 of the ALDS and calling Maikel Garcia a “sore loser.”
He wants more trash talk in baseball.
“It adds a lot of spiciness,” Chisholm said. “You are more locked in as a fan because you know what’s going on. I think it’s fun, at least.”
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