Delmon Young homers in big league debut

CHICAGO --Delmon Young was right in the middle of everything during a hectic major league debut Tuesday night, two months after serving a 50-game suspension in the minors for throwing his bat at an umpire.

In the second inning, his first trip to the plate, Young was hit by a pitch from Freddy Garcia.

Welcome to the majors, kid.

Later, Young homered for Tampa Bay in a 12-9 loss to the Chicago White Sox, showing why the Devil Rays drafted him No. 1 overall in 2003.

But it was Young getting plunked that left Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon annoyed at Chicago skipper Ozzie Guillen and Garcia.

"In the future, we will handle our own problems and we don't want anybody else to think they need to discipline us. For me, I want the word out: that's the last time that it should happen. It's over for him," Maddon said. "It's obvious what they did. Nobody else needs to discipline us, we'll take care of that ourselves."

Garcia denied Tampa Bay's allegations.

"I don't know why. I don't know that kid and I don't really pay attention to all that stuff. I tried to pitch inside and I hit him. It's no big deal for me," Garcia said. "I tried to pitch inside. I was all over the plate anyway. I don't think I had great command today."

Young criticized the Tampa Bay organization for not bringing him up to the majors sooner, so he was surprised when his teammates stood up for him and started yelling at Garcia after he got hit.

"I said some stupid things in the paper. I wouldn't have expected the guys to be behind me so quick," Young said.

Perhaps retaliating, Tampa Bay hit A.J. Pierzynski with a pitch in the eighth.

Young was recalled from Triple-A Durham on Monday night. He started in right field and batted eighth. In the sixth, he hit a two-run homer into the left-field bullpen off Garcia.

Young was suspended for 50 games earlier this season after throwing a bat at an umpire during a game with Durham. After returning to the Bulls' lineup in June, he hit .318 with eight homers and 57 RBIs.