It may be over; it may be just beginning.
After the White Sox took notable and on-field exception to the blatant bat flip by Tampa Bay’s Felipe Lopez last week, the teams squared off yesterday for the first time since the incident.
Most of the game was too close to reasonably expect retaliation, were it forthcoming. Through Lopez’s first three at-bats the Rays led by three or fewer runs—not nearly enough for the Sox to give them free opportunities to pad their lead.
When Lopez came to the plate in the eighth inning, however, it was 4-0. And with an 0-2 count, he blasted a pitch from Matt Thornton over the wall in left. (In all he went 3-for-4 with a double and the home run, the stat line of a clearly unmarked man.)
Perhaps 4-0 was too close for Ozzie Guillen’s tastes, or perhaps Thornton opted against furthering the confrontation, especially once he got two quick strikes on the batter. It’s possible that Lopez’s apology after the initial act diffused the situation entirely.
Still, there’s enough gray area here to merit keeping an eye on the situation through the rest of the series.
– Jason
The Baseball Codes 
Lot of action today 3 HBPs, Danks hit 2 Sean Rodriguez and Kelly Shoppach and James Sheilds hit Konerko. I didn’t watch the game but considering James Sheilds threw a CG 4 hitter I would have to think the HBP was inntentional.
I was at the game; all three hbp were ricochets. To me, intentional would be more dead center. Lopez came up three times with runners in scoring position(all ground outs), so it wouldn’t have been wise to hit him. The last at bat the bases were empty with one out, Danks having been relieved by Jesse Crain who then struck out Lopez. The score was 2-1 in the 8th, so that may not have been a good time to plunk him either. The other side of the coin is that the apology to Ozzie may have put out the fire before it started.
Thanks for the recap I would say nothing is going to happen if it hasn’t happen already. Much appreciation, Tyler K.
This is a tough one to read. Danks hit two guys but didn’t walk a batter, which is always curious. Hitting Lopez was simply not an option tonight; his first three trips to the plate included a runner in scoring position and fewer than two outs. When Danks faced him in the eighth, the score was too close for retaliation (as well as the possibility that retribution might already have been sent via Sean Rodriguez or Kelly Shoppach, who had been hit earlier.)
My guess is with you, Tyler, that it ends here. Still, I’ll be watching to see what happens tomorrow.
Many thanks, Razzlegator — our man on the scene — and Tyler, for weighing in.