When David Ortiz angrily interrupted a Terry Francona press conference last week over an RBI that had been taken away from him by the official scorer, it was the talk of the town.
Turns out, Ortiz's outburst was egged on by Dustin Pedroia. Pedroia explained to CSNNE Red Sox Insider Joe Haggerty that he had played a joke on Ortiz that ignited the blow up.
Pedroia told Ortiz that John Henry and Theo Epstein ordered the official scorer to take away Ortiz's RBI in an effort to keep Ortiz's stat totals low and therefore give him less leverage when it comes time to negotiate a new contract.
Ortiz freaked and quickly barged into Francona's press conference to bring it up with the manager.
As Haggerty put it, Pedroia successfully "busted Ortiz's cookies." Funny for Pedroia. Not so much for Ortiz, who came off as petty after the whole ordeal.