After hitting a pair of home runs off of Mike Mussina Thursday night, Manny Ramirez dug into the batter’s box in the seventh inning against Kyle Farnsworth.

Mussina was never the type to retaliate so that job was probably left to Farnsworth. Without wasting much time a pitch nearly 100 MPH buzzed past Ramirez’s head. The pitch didn’t hit him but that didn’t stop home plate umpire, Larry Vanover, from warning both benches to keep any further actions from occurring.

Farnsworth was not ejected from the game and afterwards he denied any intent to hit the Red Sox slugger. “It just slipped,” said Farnsworth. “I was trying to be aggressive and go in on him.”

Despite his suggestion that the pitch was merely an accident MLB has decided to hand down a punishment to Farnsworth. He will be suspended for three games and fined $2,000 according to the NY Daily News. It would be hard to imagine the Farnsworth and the Yankees not appealing this ruling.

Aside from the likelihood that Farnsworth was retaliating against Ramirez for the pair of moon-shots hit off Mussina there may also be another motive. The night before David Aardsma hit Alex Rodriguez after he homered off of that night’s starter Clay Buchholz. Either way it is clear that MLB thought Farnsworth was protecting one of his teammates and deserves to be punished for it.

“You know, we hit one of their best players last night, and I guess they want to send a message,” Ramirez said Thursday. “They need to back up their players, and they did.”

Last season Joba Chamberlain received a two-game suspension after throwing a fastball past the head of Kevin Youkilis.