After rough weekend, Manny Machado may have some repair work to do

In the latest American League All-Star Game voting results released last night, Manny Machado is in third place in the vote for the starting AL third basemen.

Hope he's not counting on getting any votes out of Oakland this week.

Machado had a rather eventful weekend. It ended with some of his own fans lashing out at him via social media, on here and on many other places. No one from the A's took a swing at him, but he took some haymakers from fans calling him immature and worse.

My take is that Machado overreacted about the Josh Donaldson tag on Friday, and it is easy to see why many believe he intentionally threw his bat yesterday. He said he didn't and I'll take him at his word. But the umpires were not buying that and, of course, no one in the Oakland clubhouse was either.

Machado has taken a hit in the court of public opinion.

I can't get inside his head, but maybe much of this year has been frustrating for him. Coming back from knee surgery, he's been trying to play catch-up all year. At this point last season, he was batting well over .300 and looked on his way to breaking Major League Baseball's single-season doubles record. We were watching a then 20-year-old kid turn into a star before our eyes.

Now, he's batting .235 and has seven errors. He's on a pace to make about double last year's total of 13.

If, and I say if, Machado intended to throw that bat and then didn't come clean about it after the game, he only made the situation worse.

Has he hurt his image with O's fans? Maybe, but he can get everyone back on board real quick. Let's not forget the sellout crowd on Saturday, many that showed up to get a Manny Machado bobblehead. Let's not forget how popular the kid is and how good he can be.

He probably let his emotions get the best of him. I really don't see that Donaldson did anything wrong on that tag. But Fernando Abad certainly appeared to be throwing at Manny twice in the eighth inning. He got ejected and should have been tossed. He threw a pitch near Machado's surgically repaired left knee.

A's players were talking about a lack of respect for the game and so forth, which is an overreaction as well. They didn't invent the game. But emotions take over when players leave the dugout to rush the field. I really thought we'd see that incident escalate and I'm glad it didn't. First base coach Wayne Kirby went charging toward the A's, and I guess it was Bob Melvin he ran toward. But he appeared to be trying to protect Machado, which was admirable. He got in front of his player and then kept his poise. Kirby had his back and I'm not surprised he did that.

For now the best way Manny and the Orioles can get past this is for Machado to start playing better and for the team to start winning more. Machado can do himself a lot of good by keeping his poise and starting to come up with more hits. Now, he needs to focus, step up his play and move past this in the same way he did Friday night after the first incident.

Any talk about lasting damage to his image or something along those lines, I don't buy it. He came off looking bad this weekend. He can start looking good again real soon. Maybe as soon as tonight.