If you're Jonathan Papelbon, and you tell the press "payback's a bitch" (thus essentially promising revenge, and basically guaranteeing a bench warning for both teams from the get-go)... don't be surprised if you get hauled into the principal's office.

Papelbon said yesterday that he understood [the concern that any high and tight pitch could be viewed as retribution from him and result in his ejection], but he still seemed steamed by the James Shields fastball that drilled Coco Crisp, touching off the brawl that occurred a day after Crisp had issues with shortstop Jason Bartlett, and the Rays had issues with Crisp for his takeout slide of Akinori Iwamura on an unsuccessful stolen-base attempt.

Papelbon said he wasn't worried about the umpires, hoping they would know the difference between a payback pitch and a purpose pitch to move a hitter off the plate to set up the next pitch, maybe down and away.

At that point, Francona happened by Papelbon's locker. He leaned over to Papelbon and said, "When you get done holding court, could you come in and see me?"

Papelbon started to say something and Francona playfully but purposefully grabbed a handful of Papelbon's T-shirt and dragged him out of the clubhouse to his office for a brief chat.

For their part, the Rays are saying all the right things - that the longstanding feud is over with the Sox... that there won't be any repercussions, and that they totally, completely, 100% have let it all go, HONEST!

"I thought it was already done with and it's a week later and we're still bringing it up," pitcher Scott Kazmir said. "It's already over. It was just real surprising to everyone. We were all talking about it when we walked in (to the clubhouse Friday)."

"When the incident occurred we took care of it in what we thought was the appropriate way, and then we moved on," [Rays manager Joe] Maddon said. "I would think they would move on, also. I'm not going to get caught in a battle of rhetoric with anybody. As far as we're concerned it's over."

"If it starts back up again we'll deal with it when it comes," Evan Longoria said. "But we've got a lot more business to take care of and things to deal with than worry about what they're saying in the papers."