Rays' Randy Arozarena got angry when Yankees' Albert Breu hit him with a pitch. Was it deliberate? Were Arozarena's heated emotions valid?

On Sunday, Tampa Bay Rays outfielder Randy Arozarena was hit by in the eighth inning by Yankees reliever Albert Abreu's sinker that traveled far off the plate. It marked the 12th time this year that a Yankees pitcher hit a Rays hitter compared to the Rays pitchers hitting the Yanks just two times.

The Rays naturally accused the Yankees of hitting Arozarena, a 2023 All-Star, on purpose.

New York denied any wrongdoing, but looking at the damage, the HBPs do seem to pile up on Tampa Bay's side and throw the Yanks' end-of-season intentions into question. With nothing to lose, are the last-place Yankees headhunting Rays hitters?

There's no clear or definitive answer to that. We only have what's been said, and what's been said is a lot of straight-faced denial in New York's clubhouse.

The Yankees' 7-4 loss at Tropicana Field included four instances in which a New York pitcher drilled a Rays hitter.

A benches-clearing scrum ensued after Arozarena got hit; no ejections occurred and no punches were thrown. The Rays hitter said after the game he thought the hit was intentional. Yankees manager Aaron Boone and Abreu insisted there was no bad blood.

Yankees claim Randy Arozarena hit was purely accidental

I dont know why. It just seems like they always want to hit us. Randy Arozarena I get the frustration, but nothing is happening on purpose. Obviously, some tempers got going. Aaron Boone

Abreu tried to justify what he claims was an accidental hit: "The reality is I'm a sinkerball pitcher, and in that moment, I'm trying to execute my pitch. What I'm trying to create there is weak contact. So I'm definitely not trying to hit him. I'm just trying to execute my pitch and get some soft contact there."

This year, heading into Sunday's matchup, Arozarena had been hit twice by the Yankees, once from Jhony Brito and another from Abreu.

At the end of the day, there's no changing Yankees or Rays fans' minds. Yankees fans probably believe their team is not culpable. Rays fans probably think the sore loser Yanks are out to get them.

With the Rays primed for a postseason run and the Yankees getting left behind in the dust, it's easy to come to emotional conclusions like, "The Yankees are hitting players on purpose", especially in a tense, late-season AL East rivalry. Sunday's Abreu-Arozarena incident appeared to be a case of tempers boiling over and a bit of bad pitching, nothing more.