Kevin Towers is Upset his Arizona Pitchers Didn't Protect Hitters: "It's an eye for an eye"

The Diamondbacks and Dodgers open the 2014 baseball season next March playing a series in Australia. Figure on the games being played at some ungodly hour, but it’s going be appointment television nonetheless.

Quick recap: Back in June, the two teams staged one of the most memorable baseball brawls in recent years with Zack Greinke and Ian Kennedy exchanging beanballs and countless baseball luminaries from the 1980s like Kirk Gibson, Don Mattingly and Alan Trammel squaring off at Dodgers Stadium. Fast forward to September and hostilities between the two teams hit an all-time high when the Dodgers celebrated clinching the NL West with a party at the Chase Field pool behind the outfield.

On Tuesday, Diamondbacks GM Kevin Towers went on an Arizona radio station bemoaning his team’s lack of toughness and how his pitchers didn’t protect his batters, namely Paul Goldschmidt, when opponents threw inside at him. He said, among other things, “they slapped us around and we took it.”

Here’s some of the other choice nuggets from Towers, as transcribed by ArizonaSports.com:

"“I was sitting behind home plate that game and when it showed up on the Diamondvision of stuffing bananas down their throats, I felt like we were a punching bag. Literally, if I would have had a carton of baseballs I would have fired them into the dugout from where I was sitting behind home plate.”"

(Never exactly heard the “stuffing bananas down their throats” euphemism used in a baseball context before.)

Towers continued.

"“Not that I don’t take any of our guys from a lesser standpoint, but if Goldy’s getting hit, it’s an eye for an eye, somebody’s going down or somebody’s going to get jacknifed.”"

There’s a bit of an irony here since the D’backs are managed by Kirk Gibson, who has been noted in baseball circles for his hard-nosed approach to the game. You’d think if any team would be all about sending message pitches, it would be Arizona.