Incident Motivates Balfour

Grant Balfour tried to get himself pumped up while Orlando Cabrera intentionally kicked a little dirt up. The whole thing nearly turned into a dustup during a tight moment in Tampa Bay's 6-4 victory in Game 1 of the American League Division Series at Tropicana Field on Thursday.

Balfour entered the game in the top of the seventh in relief of starter James Shields, with a three-run lead to protect and the bases loaded with one out. Balfour had just struck out Juan Uribe, and he yelled out a loud expletive on the mound, as he usually does.

"All year, I fire myself up, and that's what I do," Balfour said. "That's what I've been doing all year long, and I haven't changed anything and I'm not going to change. That's what I like to do when I pitch."

Cabrera, however, read things differently and took exception to the antics of the 6-foot-2, 190-pound Rays pitcher. After taking ball one outside in his turn at-bat, Cabrera took a half-step forward in the batter's box and kicked some dirt toward the mound that nearly sparked a tense playoff into a flare-up.

"They said that he always gets pumped up like that, he always says the F-word to the hitter every time they swing at his pitch," Cabrera said. "I didn't know that, so I just got mad a little bit and I was just pumped up."

Balfour didn't appreciate the Chicago shortstop kicking dirt in the direction of the mound, and the two began exchanging words. Rays catcher Dioner Navarro was quick to come to the defense of his pitcher and tried to intervene.

"He's been like that the whole year," Navarro said, "and that's what I was trying to tell Cabrera - 'Hey, he's been like that the whole year, he wasn't even talking to the hitter, he wasn't even talking to nobody.'"

Cabrera eventually stepped back into the box, while Balfour took his place on the rubber. And if Cabrera was hoping to take Balfour out of his game for the rest of the at-bat, the strategy didn't work.

"Apparently, he likes to be challenged, and I was just trying to take his mind out of the game like that and challenge him a little bit," Cabrera said

Four pitches later, Cabrera struck out swinging at a 95-mph fastball to end the White Sox's best chance to get back in the game. Balfour said he used the incident as motivation to get out of the jam.

"At the time, I thought he was trying to show me up, and it got me pumped up," Balfour said. "It gave me more of a reason to want to strike him out."

The exchange between opposing players, however, was not done. As Balfour made his way toward the dugout, he looked at Cabrera and gestured toward the Chicago dugout and essentially told the shortstop to take a seat.

"I must admit it was a good feeling to strike him out right there, and I told him to go sit down," Balfour said.