Dillon Atkinson: Machado displaying maturity through incidents with Red Sox

In a 10-day span, Orioles third baseman Manny Machado has been thrown at five times in two games. After the fifth one, Tuesday night from the live arm of Red Sox's ace southpaw Chris Sale, Machado finally had some choice words for the Red Sox, and he certainly didn't hold back his true feelings. He used many expletives in his postgame rant, stating that he has lost all respect for the Red Sox organization.

I'll note that there may now be 29 teams - instead of 30 - in contention for Machado's services after 2018 when he reaches free agency.

But despite all his anger built up inside from all this, we still have yet to see an on-field confrontation between Machado and a Red Sox pitcher. Could it be that the superstar third baseman is maturing right in front of our eyes? Let's take a look at the timeline.

* June 27, 2013: Machado got his first career ejection arguing a call he had no business arguing, as the home plate umpire clearly got the call right.

* June 6, 2014: Machado starts an on-field confrontation with Josh Donaldson over what he thought was a hard tag.

* June 8, 2014: Machado hits A's catcher Derek Norris multiple times on his backswing, but didn't check on him once.

* June 8, 2014: Machado takes a pitch inside at the knees from A's pitcher Fernando Abad, then tosses his bat toward third base on the next pitch, while staring down Abad. Denied intent.

* May 28, 2015: Machado argues a strikeout call, then chucks his bat down in anger over the call.

* Sept. 23, 2015: Nationals closer Jonathan Papelbon plunks Machado, then gets ejected. Machado shouted some choice words for Papelbon, but things cooled down shortly afterward.

* June 7, 2016: Machado takes exception to pitches inside from Royals pitcher Yordano Ventura, then charges the mound after Ventura plunks him in the following at-bat.

* April 23 and May 2, 2017: Machado gets thrown at five times by the same team in two days within a 10-day span, has had no confrontation on the field, but had a profanity-laced rant postgame.

In two of these eight situations - June 8, 2014 and June 7, 2016 - Machado was suspended for his actions. The first one for tossing his bat at the opposing team, and the other for being in the middle of a bench-clearing brawl with the Royals and Ventura.

Would I have seen Machado as immature or in the wrong if he decided to start a confrontation with Red Sox pitchers Matt Barnes or Chris Sale? No. If Major League Baseball isn't going to step in, he may feel the need to take action himself, and I can't say I'd blame him for that. But Machado not having any altercations on the field tells me that he's maturing, or at the very least, displaying maturity throughout this entire situation with Boston.

Hopefully, the Orioles don't retaliate on tonight or Thursday night against Red Sox hitters. Not only do they need to just get back to playing baseball, but hitting a Red Sox batter could result in yet another pitch thrown at Machado. And at that point, Machado could either wind up injured, suspended or both. That's the last thing the Orioles and their superstar need.

I've noticed baseball fans on social media stating Machado's postgame comments were unprofessional and that he needs to set a better example for the kids. While, yes, I do think Machado could've chosen his words a little more carefully, I believe him speaking his true feelings on the incident sets a far better example than pitchers choosing to intentionally throw 90-100 mph fastballs into the sides or heads of a batter, who is forced to be a sitting duck in the batter's box, waiting for the pitch to come in and potentially hurt him. Their actions involved near violence; Machado's haven't.

Also, if you have a big problem with Machado's postgame comments, I can make a fair assumption you probably haven't been used as target practice by five major-league fastballs in two games over a 10-day span. Your reaction may have been much worse than Machado's. To this point, many Orioles fans - including myself - have noticed the change in how Machado is handling these types of situations now. And it's a great thing to witness.

Dillon Atkinson blogs about the Orioles for Orioles Uncensored. Follow him on Twitter: @DAtkinsonOU. His thoughts on the O's appear here as part of MASNsports.com's continuing commitment to welcome guest bloggers to our little corner of cyberspace. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our roster of writers.