BOSTON - The plate umpire issued a warning tonight. The FCC may do the same.
Orioles third baseman Manny Machado boiled over outside the visiting clubhouse following tonight's 5-2 loss to the Red Sox, his anger directed at left-hander Chris Sale and a fastball in the first inning that zipped behind his knees.
With cameras and digital recorders rolling, Machado went on a profanity-laced tirade and said he lost respect for the Red Sox organization. He's tired of still being a target for his slide into second baseman Dustin Pedroia in Baltimore that he insists wasn't intended to cause injury.
If Machado does reach the free agent market following the 2018 season, the Orioles may have one fewer team competing for his services.
The Orioles are convinced that Sale's pitch had purpose. Guys are fuming. Machado just brought the strongest words - many of them in need of editing.
"What do you think?" he asked. "Coward stuff. I mean, that's stuff that you don't (expletive) do, but I mean, I'm not on that side, I'm not in that organization. They're still thinking about that same slide that I did that was no intention on hurting anybody. I'm still paying, I'm still trying to get hit at, get thrown at at my (expletive) head. They're (expletive) throwing at everywhere. (Expletives). I've lost my respect for that organization, for that coaching staff, for everyone over there.
"You're going to (expletive) hit me, hit me. Go ahead. (Expletive) hit me. Don't let this (expletive) keep lingering, (expletive) around and keep trying to (expletive) hit people. It's (expletives), it's (expletives). MLB should do something about (expletive) pitchers out there with (expletive) balls in their hands throwing 100 mph trying to hit people.
"I had a (expletive) bat, too. I could go up there and crush somebody if I wanted to. But you know what? I'll get suspended for a year and a pitcher only gets suspended for two games. That's not cool, that's not cool."
Machado has no idea whether Major League Baseball will take action. Red Sox reliever Matt Barnes was suspended four games for throwing behind Machado's head.
"That's not my call," he said. "I play baseball. That's all I can control. They've got to do something about it. If you're going to hit somebody, go ahead and hit them. It's (expletives)."
The Red Sox clearly are miffed about the slide, but also a Dylan Bundy pitch last night that slammed into Mookie Betts' hip while he was trying to hold a two-run lead.
"I don't know. Go ask them, go ask (John) Farrell, go ask that other side. I don't know," Machado said.
"For me, as I see it, I slid into second base normal and I kind of hurt someone a little bit unintentional. I grabbed him after the matter of fact and they're still trying to pay the piper. I don't know. What they're trying to pay for, I don't know what their mindset is. Whatever. I'm just going to keep playing baseball, doing what I've got to do, keep winning games out here, keep playing for my team. And that's all I can control."
The night began with Red Sox's fans giving Adam Jones a warm ovation in his first trip to the plate. One pitch to Machado and plate umpire D.J. Reyburn was warning both benches and getting an earful from Orioles manager Buck Showalter.
"You never know what happens in Boston," Machado said.
Said Showalter: "It's obvious how we feel. We're biased. I'm not going to get involved in that. Umpires are there to try to protect the players. There's two ways you can protect them there, and they chose the other one."
Asked if he heard anything in the stands the last two nights, Machado replied, "A lot of boos, a lot of boos. Love it. Love it."
Machado homered off Sale in the seventh inning to reduce the Red Sox lead to 3-2, but they scored twice in the bottom half to secure the win.
Jones gave a calmer assessment of the situation with Machado and Sale, but his disapproval also was evident.
"Probably not the best," he said. "I know him personally. One thing I do know about him is he's going to protect his players. Probably not the best move. Good thing he didn't hit him because that was about 97. That wouldn't have felt good.
"Ain't no way that I'm going to allow that kind of stuff to happen. He's the best player on our team. He handled it properly. He ended up going deep later to show his way of retaliation. At the end of the day, the best way to speak in this game is with your bat and your glove and not with your mouth, and he did a great job.
"I think it's over now. They didn't get them."
But is it really over? Just when that appears to be the case, it starts up again. Bad blood keeps oozing over each series.
"I don't know," Jones said. "I'm not the media writing the stories trying to create things just like the last 10 days, 'This slide's bad, it hit him.' You guys create the narratives. We just go out and do what the Lord has blessed us to do."
Told about Machado's rant, Jones said, "As he should have, as he should have. We're human beings. When people dislike things, you're supposed to express how you dislike them. If you look at what's going on today, there's a lot of people, especially hierarchy, speak their mind, exactly what they want to say. Let them speak."
The warm and fuzzy start, with Jones stepping out of the box and nodding to the crowd, couldn't be sustained.
"Much appreciated," Jones said. "I said before it was much appreciated by Boston Red Sox and MLB getting ahead of it, just appreciative that action was taken and that not everybody feels the same as selected people. It was much appreciated. Sale, who works extremely fast, took his time and let it relish a little bit, so I appreciate the sentiments.
"I was ready to hit, man. I appreciated what they did. I've never on the road gotten any ovations or anything like that. It caught me off guard a little bit, so I said, 'OK, this is something different.' I just wanted to get in the box and get on with the game."
Jones said he didn't hear any racial slurs coming from the stands. Just the usual trash talk aimed at an opposing player.
"Oh, for sure, but people knew there was extra help up there, so I think they were a little smarter in what they wanted to say," Jones said. "I said if you can stick to baseball-related comments and all that stuff, that's all part of it. Once you cross that line, it's a different situation."
Here's more from the visiting side at Fenway Park, including Chris Tillman's next start anticipated for Sunday in Baltimore after he allowed five runs and five hits in five innings tonight at Triple-A Charlotte, including four home runs:
Showalter on Alec Asher, who allowed three runs in six innings: "Really good, really impressed with him. We were in a time of need of some innings. He had somewhat of a layoff, but he was solid. He's been impressive. He's got a good repertoire and I'm really proud of him. We needed him to give us some length tonight and he did, and in a tough situation. He's been good, huh?"
Showalter on whether Asher gets consideration for another start: "Well, obviously. But what's consideration, you know? He's done his part. I don't want to hear anybody say he faced a team that wasn't swinging the bats good. And maybe Boston isn't, but what do you want him to do. He's done his part and it's a nice depth piece for us at the worst. He's certainly worthy of further consideration."
Showalter on Jones' ovation: "I thought it was great. I was telling somebody it would have been apropos for him to be given an ovation, hit a home run and boo him going around so we got the whole gamut. Their pitcher wasn't going to let that happen. He was pretty good."
Showalter on Tillman: "He felt good. Threw 90-something. Obviously, statistically may not be (impressive), but we're not waiting on that. He'll meet us. His work day is Friday, so he'll meet us in Baltimore and take that work day and make his start on Sunday probably unless there's something we have to adjust with rain or something."
Showalter on the triple play: "As a matter of fact, I managed in extended spring. I've seen one crazier than that. I had one where it never hit leather, triple play where a guy passed a guy and hit the other guy in the helmet. One was an infield fly, so it never hit leather. If you've been in extended spring for a couple of years like I have, you've seen it all.
"Jonathan (Schoop) really heads up on it and we know that Zach (Britton) throws a lot of groundball double plays, so he just got another one. He got an extra out there. Really heads up play being aware of what's going on. A lot of people, when something not particularly good happens, they just put their heads in the sand. Our guys look for ways ...
"A lot of guys would throw that ball directly to third. J.J. (Hardy) was very aware of what was going on, and so was Jon. I think they could have gotten him both ways; I'm not sure, abandoning the base paths. I just wanted to make sure they didn't call the infield fly."
Asher on his start: "I thought it went well. Made a couple mistakes that Hanley (Ramirez) made me pay for. But other than that, I felt like I executed my plan and threw alright.
Asher on the warnings: I didn't pay too much attention to it, honestly. You can't really see in that dugout, so I don't even know what happened. But it's not going to affect my game plan."
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