Via George King:

Even though they watched Kyle Farnsworth’s first pitch to Manny Ramirez on Thursday night at Yankee Stadium fly behind the Red Sox slugger’s head, the Yankees were stunned that baseball’s top cop, Bob Watson, yesterday suspended the right-handed reliever for three games.

“I am surprised by it,” GM Brian Cashman said before last night’s 6-0 loss to the Orioles at Camden Yards. “Other than that, we will wait for the appeal process. I don’t agree with it.”

Manager Joe Girardi never saw it coming.

“Shocked, completely shocked,” Girardi said. “I don’t understand it. You have to pitch inside or else you are going to get killed. If not, you might as well put [the ball] on a tee.”

Farnsworth, who was fined $2,000 but wasn’t ejected, also is in the dark.

“I am confused – I didn’t hit him,” Farnsworth said. “I would never hit anybody in the head area. Alex [Rodriguez] got hit in the same area. I wasn’t trying to hit a guy. It’s confusing to me.”

Maybe they should send Bob Watson a clip from Bill Madden’s column today? This part:

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, since 2002 Yankee batters have been hit 69 times by Red Sox pitchers as opposed to 48 Red Sox hit by Yankee hurlers. But the figures are even more dramatic when you narrow it down to just the primary combatants, Jeter, Rodriguez, Ramirez and David Ortiz.

Over that same six-year span, including postseason, Jeter has been plunked 12 times by Red Sox pitchers and A-Rod 10 times. By contrast, Yankee pitchers have hit Manny only three times (not including Farnsworth’s near-miss Thursday night) and “Big Papi”? Never. Interestingly, for all his considerable bulk, Ortiz has managed to enjoy a relatively pain-free existence while causing so much pain to opposing pitchers. Ortiz has only been struck by pitches just 23 times in 1,208 at-bats from 1997 through last year.