OAKLAND ? The social media hostility on Twitter between Rangers pitcher Matt Garza and A's second baseman Eric Sogard and his wife, Kaycee, is over, apparently with no lasting damage.
Garza was unhappy that Sogard bunted home a run against him in the seventh inning Saturday. The A's were up 3-2 at the time, but Garza hadn't allowed a run since the first inning, and the A's decided to exploit the fact that Garza isn't particularly good at fielding his position.
He yelled at Sogard at the time, and after the game, a 4-2 A's win, Garza responded to Kaycee Sogard's tweets about Eric's successful bunt with a series misogynistic of tweets that talked about baseball being ``a man's game,'' suggesting that Kaycee Sogard ``keep your trap shut,'' and telling Eric Sogard ``to keep your wife out of it.''
On Sunday, Garza issued an apology on his twitter feed and apologized when talking to the media.
The Sogards were with A's teammates and their spouses at an A's charity bowling event Saturday night while the altercation took place. Sogard said Sunday morning he had a couple of teammates mention something to him during the bowling, but he didn't get the full picture until he and Kaycee went home.
``We got home last night and talked about it and we thought it basically it was pretty funny,'' he said. ``It was like `Can you believe this is happening?' But it did happen.''
Garza's media apology and his twitter apology were basically the same.
``All I want to say is I let my competitive spirit cross outside the lines, and that shouldn't happen,'' Garza said. ``I let my passion, my fire, carry over, and that's not the way this game should be played. For that, I apologize to the Sogards for anything that was said through my Twitter. Regret what happened and looking forward to a great game today.''
Rangers assistant general manager Thad Levine, who called Garza's twitter outburst ``totally inappropriate,'' called the A's to personally apologize. And he and several members of the Texas front office talked with Garza, who was recently acquired from the Cubs to beef up the Rangers' starting rotation.
``We had a conversation with him (this morning.),'' Levine said. ``I certainly did, and individually a number of people have had discussions with him. He's been very conciliatory. Those are the type of conversations where you expect to sit down and work out some emotions. He was contrite right from the outset of the conversation.''
One of Levine's suggestions to Garza was that he get off Twitter, and he said Garza ``seemed to go along with it.''
For their part the A's aren't asking any of their players to tone down their tweets in any way and manager Bob Melvin said he didn't see any long-term impact.
``Will it make the rivalry (more intense?) I don't know,'' Melvin said. ``It's already at a pretty high intensity.''
Rangers manager Ron Washington, a very old school guy, not only isn't on Twitter (Melvin was for a bit in spring training but isn't now), but he said he wasn't exactly sure what Twitter was.
``What's Twitter anyway?'' Washington asked. ``People's opinions?''
The Texas manager said he didn't expect there to be any carryover and that he wouldn't ask his players to abandon Twitter.
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