Arroyo Apologizes for Throwing at Vogelsong

On Sunday night, the Giants squeezed out a 4-3 walkoff-ish win over the Reds in San Francisco. But the attitude between the teams was even more drama-filled than the final score indicated, as batters were plunked, benches were emptied and Bronson Arroyo was slinging baseballs at Ryan Vogelsong's head.

But Arroyo said afterward that he was sorry for buzzing Vogey's face, and that it was all an accident.

"I was just missing my spots. He just got irritated. I played with Ryan for a long time. I called over there and told him he had every right to be irritated," Arroyo said, per MLB.com's Mark Sheldon. "I've got to get the ball down. Even if you're going in, which I wasn't, I was going away, you can't get up near guys' heads. I had already hit Buster up near his head as well. I told him it's my fault. They've got all the right in the world to be irritated. I knew it wasn't going to get out of hand because I think Ryan knows me well enough to know there wasn't any malice in it.

"In the heat of battle, guys are obviously going to be frustrated and have allegiance to the ballclub and that's the way it goes."

Of course, there's one little problem here: before Arroyo buzzed Vogelsong, the two teams had already swapped beanings. Vogelsong hit Brandon Phillips in the fourth inning, and then Arroyo responded by plunking Buster Posey in the fifth.

In the sixth, Vogelsong was working on putting down a sacrifice bunt when Arroyo threw at his chin. Accidentally we're sure. Vogelsong got his bunt down and Arroyo had some words for him. Accidentally we're sure.

Whatever, Vogelsong accepted his former teammate's apology after the game.

“I know that he wasn’t trying to hit me, so let’s get that out of the way. Bronson and I are friends. We played together in Pittsburgh and we talk occasionally," Vogelsong said. "So we’re friends, but when you’re on the field and you’re between the lines, you’re not friends any more. Ball’s coming up and in, it’s not a comfortable feeling, you don’t like it. I’m sure he wasn’t intentionally trying to hit Buster, either, but … you’re in the heat of battle and things happen like that and you get fired up.”

Part of the Reds frustration probably stems from all their whining about the All-Star Game selections: Dusty Baker thinks Tony LaRussa is purposely out to snub the Reds and they spent most of Sunday angrily complaining.

So it shouldn't be a surprise that they took some of their frustrations out against a team that had four selections.

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