Hanley Ramirez Feels Unprotected, Fredi Gonzalez Feels Anger

The Florida Marlins have been playing a lot better in June than they did in May, and have won five of their last seven, including a three-game sweep over the Blue Jays in Toronto this weekend.

So why are they so angry?

During their 8-3 victory over the Jays on Sunday Hanley Ramirez was hit by a pitch on his left elbow by a Dirk Hayhurst fastball with two outs and a runner on third. In Ramirez's mind the Jays didn't want to pitch to him so instead of throwing four balls and running the risk of leaving a fastball over the plate, they just plunked him.

After the game Ramirez let the media know that he wasn't happy with being hit intentionally, and that he was even more upset that his team failed to retaliate.

"Everybody knows," Ramirez said, to a group of reporters at his locker. "I think Fredi knows it. [Josh Johnson] knows it. [Hayhurst] was throwing strikes."

Approached again and asked if the team has to defend him in that situation, Ramirez cemented his point in Spanish, saying: "You know, incredible. There's going to come a point where I'm not going to feel protected. I'm going to be scared to hit a home run because I know I'm going to get hit."

Ramirez added the team was "obligated" to retaliate. Hayhurst also hit Jeremy Hermida two innings earlier.

Of course after hearing Ramirez say this the reporters then went to Fredi Gonzalez to let him know what Ramirez said and get his reaction. Gonzalez then went and talked to Ramirez about it, and when he came back he demanded to hear the tapes of Hanley's comments and then started throwing reporters out of the clubhouse.

According to Gonzalez, the reporters were just trying to "stir stuff up." He never let the reporters play the tapes for him.

What I think happened here is that Ramirez was emotional after the game and ran off at the mouth, and maybe after talking to Gonzalez about it he backed down about his statements, or just flat out denied them. Whatever the case is, if Ramirez has a problem with the support he's getting from his manager or teammates, that's something that should be kept amongst the team.

Maybe then they could actually enjoy themselves after sweeping a good team in their park, instead of having to deal with such distractions.