Angels and Red Sox both play it coy when discussing pre-game antics

The Angels and Red Sox are clinging to hopes that they will make it to October with the way their teams are faring right now compared to the rest of the American League. After walking them off in the series finale, the Red Sox re-took a half game lead over the Angels in the standings -- the BoSox are now 30-34 and the Halos are 28-33. Both teams are incredibly flawed, and frustrations are certainly starting to boil over for the clubs.

In what could be classified as a pre-game brouhaha, Tyler Anderson and Barry Enright both got face-to-face with first base coach José Flores. Anderson and Flores got into it, so Enright had his player's back and got himself into the altercation. Boston's third base coach Kyle Hudson was seen pushing Flores back as the situation continued to escalate, and many players and staffers from both sides congregated to alleviate any tensions from arising even more than they already had.

“What I can tell you is baseball talk,” Ron Washington said. “Things happen like that. I don’t know what else to say. There’s no grudge against both teams. So just some baseball talk.” Red Sox skipper Alex Cora basically said the exact same thing: "Just baseball talk. Disagreements that happened during the series, but everything's good." The Angels did not allow Tyler Anderson or Barry Enright to speak to the media following the game.

One person who actually did make a comment about the spat was a fella by the name of Mike Rodriguez. The MLB insider claims that it was Anderson took exception to Flores and says the first base coach was "stealing the signals" from the starter during his outing on Monday. Rodriguez did not provide any specifics other than that, and it's hard to believe what he reported given that teams use PitchComm instead of traditional signals now. It's also interesting to think that words were exchanged first by the Angels, given that they had won the previous two contests. Either way, it certainly was Flores who heightened the emotionality of the conflict between the two sides.

During Anderson's outing, he went 4.2 innings, struck out five, allowed seven hits, five earned runs and two walks. The Sox lineup tagged Anderson for four runs in the fifth inning, and he was taken out in favor of Hunter Strickland.

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