Bay Area native earns a five-game suspension for cheap shot

6/9/08—San Fran-born Jonny Gomes piles on Coco Crisp after a bench-clearing brawl at Fenway Park Thursday.

By Matt Bloom

Tampa Bay Devil Rays' designated hitter and right-fielder Jonny Gomes, who was born in San Francisco and was an all-league at Casa Grande High School in Petaluma, sprinted from the dugout as Red Sox center-fielder Coco Crisp charged the mound after being beaned on Thursday. Check out the video: Gomes is the guy serving a wind-up beating on an already-down Coco Crisp. It was Gomes' second such outburst this season.

"My suspension, five games, I guess is deserved," Gomes told the Associated Press. "You leave the dugout and try to inflict punishment by punching someone, you're going to get fined. It's definitely not the way I want to leave my mark as a player. It's my second offense. I'm sure that had something to do with it."

Though he initially appealed the five-game suspension, Gomes has subsequently dropped the effort. He'll be back to enforce justice on the L.A. Angels on June 11.

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