A.J. Pierzynski ‘Not Bitter’ Toward Red Sox But Wants To ‘Beat Them A Little More’

A.J. Pierzynski wasn’t looking to cause any commotion Tuesday night.

The St. Louis Cardinals catcher had just finished facing his former team, the Boston Red Sox, for the first time since they released him last month.

Pierzynski’s departure from Boston was rather unceremonious, sure, but the veteran backstop had nothing but good things to say about his time with the Red Sox.

“Everyone wants me to say bad things about the Red Sox, and I’m not going to say it,” Pierzynski said, via ESPN.com. “I’m not bitter about what happened. It just didn’t work. The guys in Boston were great. I don’t have one hard feeling. The only thing is I didn’t play well enough and they were in a bad spot and decided to bring up (rookie catcher Christian) Vazquez to give him at-bats.

“The bottom line was I didn’t play well enough and we didn’t play well enough as a team. I have nothing but respect for the organization and the way they handled everything, and I was proud to say I was a Red Sox.”

Pierzynski did struggle at the plate during his brief Red Sox tenure, posting some of the worst offensive numbers of his career in his 72 games with the team. He’s done anything but through his first seven games with the Cardinals, though, going 8-for-25 (.320) in place of the injured Yadier Molina and scoring the eventual winning run Tuesday in St. Louis’ 3-2 win.

Despite his lack off ill will toward the Red Sox organization, Pierzynski said it’s natural for a player to have a little extra motivation when playing against a team that decided it no longer desired his services.

“I’m a human being,” he said, “and you want to beat any team you play right now, but when a team (designates you for assignment) three weeks ago, you want to beat them a little more.”

Photo via Jeff Curry/USA TODAY Sports Images