How are things going for Luke Voit in his debut season as a Padre? Not great, Bob!
The former Yankee can’t buy a hit right now, going 0 for his last 14 at the dish with eight strikeouts over that span. To make matters worse, Voit injured Reds catcher Tyler Stephenson on a play at the plate Tuesday night, and now Tommy Pham wants to fight him. Like REALLY fight him. Just name the time and place, says Pham, and he’ll be there with fists drawn.
Pham clearly didn’t appreciate the Padres slugger barreling into Stephenson, however, you could argue third base coach Mike Shildt deserves equal blame for waving Voit (never the fleetest of foot) home on a throw that beat him by 15 feet. First implemented in 2014, the “Buster Posey Rule” was meant to prevent collisions like this, though in practice, avoiding contact will often go against a player’s natural instinct, resulting in the ugly scene that transpired Tuesday night.
Stephenson, who exited the game and was subsequently diagnosed with a concussion, took the glass half-full approach on Twitter, taking solace in at least recording the out, costly as it was.
Listed at 6’3” and a beefy 255 pounds, Voit would have a pretty clear size advantage in this scenario, though Pham’s martial arts background shouldn’t be discounted. Either way, Voit can probably expect some kind of retribution in Wednesday’s series finale, with first pitch scheduled for 4:20 PM ET at Petco Park.
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