He meant it.

John Lackey sure made his presence known in his first start of the 2009 season and unfortunately, Ian Kinsler felt it.

After throwing two pitches against the Texas Rangers on Saturday, the Angels ace was ejected from the game.

The first pitch was a fastball that catcher Mike Napoli caught BEHIND Kinsler. Lackey followed that pitch by drilling Kinsler with a fastball to the ribcage, which prompted the home-plate umpire to toss him out of the game.

So the question is, why would Lackey want to start the season this way?

You may disagree, but by the way it looked on Saturday, Lackey was intentionally trying to hit Kinsler, but why?

Lackey has shown in the past that he hates when batters crowd the plate. This is evidenced by an altercation between him and former Oakland A's catcher Jason Kendall a few years ago (pictured above right), when the two got into it after it appeared as if Kendall was trying to lean into a pitch so it could hit him.

It could have also been the fact that Kinsler torched the Halos the previous night for two home runs, three runs and three RBIs.

Maybe it was because the last time Lackey faced the Rangers, he gave up 10 earned runs on 12 hits in less than three innings.

Whatever the reason, it was uncalled for and should not have happened, especially from a team that is known for keeping their composure.

Lackey claims that he was rusty, having not pitched in six weeks and that he was surprised that the umpire tossed him after two pitches. Uh, John? When you throw behind a batter and then hit him, nothing good is going to come of that. What did you expect? A free pass because you're rusty?

Lackey is the Angel's ace, and though he hasn't pitched in six weeks, he's still good enough to be able to control the ball from going behind a batter. If he wasn't intentionally trying to hit Kinsler, the thought would be that he could make the adjustment so the ball doesn't sail away from him again, but he didn't.

In my mind, if being rusty is an issue and I throw a ball behind someone, I would try to throw a pitch outside so that I'm showing the umpire it's not intentional.

Lackey's dumbfounded reaction after getting tossed was priceless, like a kid who got caught doing something wrong and now is trying to make up lame excuses for why he did it.

But for the Angels, they weren't laughing, as they had to once again go to their bullpen, which was used a lot in Friday's game. Ultimately, they lost the game 5-3 and dropped to 3.5 games back of the first-place Rangers. They also face the possibility of getting swept by Texas.

The bottom line in this game, however, is that it looked like Lackey intentionally threw at Kinsler and while we may never know why, he deserved to get ejected, regardless of what he or his coach said.

The fact that he decided to use his first two pitches of the season to hit someone may also tell you where his mind is at. The Angels orginization should at least have a talk to him about the incident to make sure he doesn't hurt them like this again.