A take on Papelbon, the umpires, Machado's homer and more

Lost in the Jonathan Papelbon hit-by-pitch and ejection for nailing Manny Machado in the ninth inning last night was how big Machado came up for his team in the seventh inning.

Let's get to that in a moment.

First, outside of Papelbon himself, how can anyone really know if he threw at Machado? But we can have an opinion. Mine is that he threw at him twice, hitting him once. Both pitches were up and in. If the pitches had intent, that is cowardly and dangerous to throw a pitch near a batter's head. What did Machado do to Papelbon?

If Papelbon had any issues with Machado "styling it" on his homer, he should have spoken out during one of the 50 times his former teammate David Ortiz did that at Camden Yards. Or one of the many times he saved a game against the Orioles and acted like he just won the World Series. By the way, Machado did nothing wrong after hitting the homer. At least nothing not seen in the American League almost every night.

As for the umpires, there were two major mistakes made by that crew in my opinion. First, there should have been a warning after the first pitch came high and tight toward Machado. Second, they inexplicably allowed Papelbon to stay in the dugout after the ejection. How can four men miss that?

Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper called Papelbon hitting Machado "tired." He said he wouldn't be surprised to get hit during today's game. It sure seems like Harper was calling out a teammate. You sure don't see that very often.

Kudos to Machado for not charging the mound. We've see this kid's emotions get the best of him before. This time that didn't happen and manager Buck Showalter and first base coach Wayne Kirby were nearby just to make sure. The last thing the Orioles need right now is Machado in a brawl when he has come through the season healthy.

To me, this doesn't make the Orioles and Nationals a rivalry. If this is what it takes, there was not enough there in the first place.

As much as some Orioles fans today may potentially want to see a Nats player get beaned, taking the high road is the best move here. Just get another win and get out of there if they can do it. The Orioles are now three games behind Houston in the loss column. That is close enough to see what's left of this race for them through to the end.

I can't see this causing hard feelings between players on these teams or between Showalter and his former player Matt Williams, the Nats manager. Showalter knows Papelbon too well. He is the only Nationals bad guy here. He hit a player who did his job well. Very well.

Now back to the homer itself. Machado hits a game-winner off Max Scherzer. That is rather impressive stuff. Took his team from behind and put them ahead with one swing. How very clutch that was off a former Cy Young Award winner. That was probably one of the more interesting at-bats of the 2015 season. Machado came through in a big spot. Get used to seeing much more of that Orioles fans.

As for seeing Papelbon again, I can do without that. With his team trying to catch the Mets, he created an unnecessary distraction and potentially put a teammate or two in harm's way. His act has been tired for a long time. It seems even some of his own teammates feel that way.