Fighting words: Giolito-Donaldson feud escalates

The Lucas Giolito-Josh Donaldson squabble did not end after Tuesday night's Zoom screen went dark.

Getting treatment in the Twins' clubhouse following a 7-6 loss to Giolito and the White Sox, Donaldson decided to respond.

For background, Donaldson hit a 2-run homer off Giolito in the first inning and rubbed his hands approaching home plate and heading back to Minnesota's dugout.

He was heard yelling, "It's not sticky anymore," a pretty clear shot at Giolito and MLB's recent crackdown on pitchers doctoring the baseball.

Giolito said he was unaware of Donaldson's antics until after the game, and he didn't hold back responding to the accusation.

"He's a (bleeping) pest," Giolito said of Donaldson. "That's kind of a classless move. If you're going to talk (bleep), talk (bleep) to my face. Don't go across home plate and do all that, just come to me."

Donaldson obviously heard Giolito in the training room, and he did respond.

In the players' parking lot.

"He said I wish he'd say it to my face? Well, I did say it to his face," Donaldson said on his own Zoom call Wednesday afternoon. "We had a talk last night and let's just be quite frank with this, he didn't have much to say. So, it's really easy to sit here behind a screen and talk tough."

Donaldson initiated the face-to-face parking lot meeting.

"I did," he said. "He was walking in the parking lot and I saw him and I went and made sure he heard what I had to say to his face because that's what he wanted, right? He didn't have really much to say. He said he thought it was annoying, I said, 'So what? I'm on the opposing team. What do you care about me?'

"I said, 'I'm in your face, I'm telling you what I think, what do you have to say about that?' And he didn't have any response."

Donaldson said his response to homering off Giolito was only intended for his teammates.

"I didn't pimp a home run, I wasn't talking to him, saying anything," Donaldson said. "Obviously, he showed offense to what I said, which I think kind of speaks more about the looming question that's going on anyhow, which is more about was he using sticky stuff before this all happened in the first place?

"If he wasn't then he probably wouldn't have even cared about that comment. So when you look at it you say, 'OK, let's go look at his numbers. What do the numbers say and what do we know about this sticky substance? What does it help with?'

"It helps with RPMs, it helps with spin rate. Well guess what? Mr. Giolito, your fastball spin rate is down 200, your curveball rate is down 400 or 500, your slider is down 200. If we're going to talk about class, what side are you going to choose? Are you going to take the side of someone who's playing the game fair or are you going to take the side of someone who was probably cheating before this happened?"

Donaldson also went after former White Sox shortstop/manager Ozzie Guillen, who said on Tuesday's postgame TV show that retaliation was in order.

"I got Ozzie Guillen talking (bleep) on the air saying, 'I'd let one go, hit him in the ribs,' " Donaldson said. "Ozzie Guillen, you were under a career .700 OPS hitter, man. You were a three-time all-star and you had under a .700 OPS. My worst season in the big leagues is 150 points higher than that.

"This is also coming from the man that said he loves Fidel Castro. That's who we're taking advice from? What are we doing around here? Come on, people."

On Wednesday's pregame show, Guillen said Donaldson would have been hit if he was still managing.

He wasn't done, jabbing the Twins for signing the injury-prone third baseman to a four-year, $92 million contract in January 2020.

"Biggest mistake Minnesota made?" Guillen said. "Signing that kid. Now they're stuck with him."