On Sunday afternoon the Oakland A’s were at Camden Yards to play the Baltimore Orioles. In the bottom of the eighth with the A’s up 10-0, relief pitcher Fernando Abad threw two inside fastballs against Manny Machado of the Orioles. The very next pitch, Machado swung very hard at another inside fastball that had already passed by him, let go of the bat and set it flying down the third base line.
Machado tried claiming the bat had slipped from his hands via USAToday.
“It was obvious the pitcher threw at him the second time,” said umpire Larry Vanover. “The first time you have some doubt, but the second time there was no doubt he threw at him. And then he threw the bat. That wasn’t accidental.”
The benches immediately cleared and both Machado and Abad were tossed.
This incident followed a benches clearing confrontation on Friday, the start of a three game series between the two teams, when Machado tossed his helmet after third baseman Josh Donaldson apparently tagged him too hard according to Yahoo.
The Orioles eventually lost the Sunday game 11-1, but serious concerns about 21-year-old Machado and his maturity arose. Simply put, if he did intentionally throw the bat on Sunday –which all appearances indicate that he did – it is a disgrace to baseball.