Matt Williams on possible retaliation: "If something happens, we'll deal with it"

Nationals star outfielder Bryce Harper called Jonathan Papelbon hitting Manny Machado with a pitch one at-bat after Machado crushed a game-changing two-run shot a "pretty tired" scenario. Harper expects the Orioles to possibly retaliate by going after him today in the series finale.

Manager Matt Williams said any team coming after Harper or any of his players with a pitch following a beaning incident in a previous game has his attention.

"I've got concern any time any of our guys potentially (are targeted), not just Bryce," Williams said. "If something happens, we'll deal with it."

When later pressed as to what Williams meant by "dealing with it," he would not give details.

"I'm not going to give you at this point options for what we would do if something happens potentially during the course of a game today," Williams said. "We'll deal with it. I'll leave it at that."

Williams said they have to focus on winning a baseball game today. The Nationals have only eleven games remaining on their schedule and trail the Mets by 6 1/2 games.

"We don't know what's going to happen today and we're not concerned about it," Williams said. "We're concerned about winning a baseball game. To offer an opinion about generalities at this point is probably not in our best interest anyway. We'll play the game and we'll go from there."

Is Williams bothered he has to deal with a possible retaliation pitch today after the Papelbon-Machado incident from Wednesday night?

"I'm not bothered at all," Williams said. "We need to play a game. We need to win a game today. We're at that point. I'm not bothered with anything other than us going out there and getting some base hits, shutting them down and playing good defense. That's our plan every single day."

Papelbon said he would not comment on Machado's quote postgame where he called the veteran closer "a coward."

"No, man," Papelbon said. "I'm on to the next day, brother. On to the next day."

Expect any retaliation from the Orioles today?

"I don't know, man," Papelbon said. "Time will tell. Time will tell."