Souza Wants To Move On From Beef With Tulowitzki

ST. PETERSBURG (620 WDAE) -- It originally started with an elimination.

Last September 12, as the Tampa Bay Rays were heading toward their 83rd loss of the year at Rogers Centre and officially being excluded from the postseason.  The last hitter of the game, Steven Souza Jr., thought he had gotten a hold of a Roberto Osuna pitch that would have tied the game, though Kevin Pillar made the catch deep in centerfield.

But something was said, something else was said in response, and all of a sudden, shortstop Troy Tulowitzki was standing there jawing at Souza with the benches emptying in reponse.

The next chapter took place Sunday at Tropicana Field.

Souza, standing on first base after drawing a walk to lead off the bottom of the second inning, took off for second as Logan Morrison grounded down the first base line.  As Justin Smoak stepped on first, he threw to second, whe Tulowitzki applied the tag as the outfielder slid in late to the bag.

The spark ignited again.

If you think it's going to change the way the outfielder plays, you'd better think again.

"I'm not going to play every game and wonder if Tulo is going to get upset about it," Souza said after the game.  "I'm playing hard, and if he think I'm trying to be malicious, then he clearly doesn't know who I am." 

The next inning, he explained his situation to catcher Russell Martin to try and defuse the situation.

"Any time something like that happens, I try and clear it up with him, and he's usually very reasonable about dealing with it." Souza explained.  "He agreed [that it wasn't intentional].  He was just trying to protect his player, and he thought it was dangerous." 

But Souza feels that there should be no animosity between the two sides.

"It's unfortunate that it turned into something like that, because it's just baseball, and hopefully we can just squash this and move on because I'm really tired of having a feud with him."

We'll see if the tempers really do cool off.  These two teams play six more times before May 8.


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