Rays' Kevin Kiermaier on Taking Blue Jays' Data Card: 'I Never Even Looked at It'

Tampa Bay Rays center fielder Kevin Kiermaier claims he did not look at the Toronto Blue Jays data card that he picked up after being tagged out in the sixth inning of the Rays-Jays game on Monday.

"I never even looked at it, I'll say that," Kiermaier told Arash Madani of Sportsnet. "But at the same time, I'm not going to drop it or hand it back."

Madani provided detail, highlights and more Kiermaier quotes.

The Rays ended up winning Monday's game 6-4.

The Kiermaier incident brought forth a host of opinions.

"Kiermaier did absolutely nothing wrong," Chris Carlin of ESPN Radio tweeted."Bad on Kirk for dropping it. Sorry."

The Toronto Star had this take, per an opinion piece from Mike Wilner.

Tao of Stieb, a Sportsnet blogger, tweeted this perspective: "I would have more respect for Kiermaier if he just owned it. If he saw it and picked it up, so be it. All this 'aw shucks, I didn’t even, I don’t know, I just handed it to someone and never heard of it again' is pretty fake."

As Kiermaier noted, he did not give the card back.

This incident occurred during a very important series with postseason ramifications for both teams.