C.C. Sabathia’s Loyalty to a Teammate Costs Him $500,000

Granted, C. C. Sabathia has earned more than $250 million over his long, distinguished and lucrative career — enough to paper over a baseball diamond many times over with dollar bills.

Still, a $500,000 bonus that Sabathia stood to land had he made it through seven innings on Thursday is not exactly pocket change — even for someone with voluminous pockets.

But for Sabathia, that financial consideration was not part of the calculus after Tampa Bay pitcher Andrew Kittredge whistled a fastball behind the head of Yankees catcher Austin Romine in the top of the sixth inning.

Sticking up for a teammate was.

So, as Romine sprawled in the dirt, Sabathia stepped out of the dugout to bark at Kittredge and the rest of the Rays. Then, when he went back out to the mound the next inning, he drilled catcher Jesus Sucre with a 92-mile-per-hour fastball — his only pitch over 90 m.p.h. all afternoon.

The moment provided a rare bit of drama in the Yankees’ 12-1 trouncing of the Rays, which left them one victory — or one Oakland Athletics loss — from clinching home-field advantage in the wild-card playoff as they head to Boston for the regular-season-ending series that begins Friday.

Sabathia was immediately ejected — along with Manager Aaron Boone — and, as he walked toward the third-base dugout, it appeared on television replays that he turned and shouted, “That’s for you,” toward the Rays dugout. He paused, then added an expletive for emphasis.

“Any time you feel like your player’s safety is in jeopardy, I think all guys take exception to that,” Sabathia said. “We all do.”

Episodes like the one on Thursday do not occur in a vacuum — and the context for this one came in the previous three games of this series.

In a series rife with sloppy pitching, five batters had been hit by pitches entering Thursday, and the Rays had apparently had enough. Their hottest hitter, Tommy Pham, was hit by Luis Severino on Tuesday; Kevin Kiermeier sustained a broken foot when he was hit by Masahiro Tanaka on Wednesday; and Sabathia caught Jake Bauers on the hand in the third inning on Thursday.

Even though none appeared to be intentional, baseball’s code dictates for some that it is acceptable for a pitcher to respond to repetitive — or injurious — plunkings with one of his own. When Giancarlo Stanton — then playing for the Miami Marlins against the Milwaukee Brewers — was beaned in the face four years ago, leaving the field in an ambulance, Miami pitcher Anthony DeSclafani answered by hitting Carlos Gomez.

“I put my head down and went to first,” said Gomez, who played right field for the Rays on Thursday. “We know they’re going to hit somebody. It’s a message for your team. It’s part of the game.”