Major League Baseball announced Tuesday that they would suspend Orioles third baseman Manny Machado five games for a bat throwing incident Sunday against the A’s.
Machado, who’s hitting an illustrious .229 on the year threw his bat on a very late swing after two inside fastballs by A’s reliever Fernando Abad. Luckily the bat didn’t hit anyone and the home plate umpire wasn’t buying Machado’s lame excuse that the bat ‘slipped’. Consequentially Abad and Macahdo were both ejected from the game.
Machado’s pissing and moaning with the A’s though didn’t start Sunday. This whole fracas actually began Friday when Machado apparently felt he was tagged too hard by Oakland third baseman Josh Donaldson who opted to take the easier out on the base paths instead of throwing across the diamond. Not to mention Machado basically ran into Donaldson’s waiting glove in between second and third and proceeded to look like a bigger fool as he fell to the ground. This proceeded Machado getting up and into Donald’s face as both benches and bullpens cleared.
Things may end up getting worse though for Machado before they get better. Orioles GM Dan Duquette told Fox Sports (via NESN) that the team would consider the option of sending the struggling third baseman down to the minors to work on his problems.
“That’s always an option (to send him down),” Orioles general manager Dan Duquette told FOX Sports. “The guy distinguished himself in the big leagues last year. We’d much rather see him develop his skills here. But that’s always an option.”