I suppose one could argue that John Means set the tone for the Baltimore Orioles last night. However Means exited the game in the fourth inning due to a high pitch count after coming off the DL. After the game manager Brandon Hyde did say that he felt Means pitched well and ran into some hard luck, however he gave up the first run in what turned into a deluge. Means’ line: 3.2 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 1 BB, 5 K.
When you lose 14-2, you can’t put blame on a guy who exited the game in the fourth inning. However the O’s gave up another five homers to NY last night,any of which were surrendered to the replacements of replacements. In short, no matter what the Orioles threw up there, NY hitters hit. And a long way at that. It didn’t matter who the players were.
However more poignant than the game itsel was what went on in the Orioles’ dugout in the fifth inning. MASN cameras caught first baseman Chris Davis having a verbal confrontation with manager Brandon Hyde. At one point Davis had to be restrained from going after Hyde, who went down the tunnel towards the clubhouse. Davis was removed from the game.
After the game Hyde neglected to address the catalyst for the altercation, but said that they would keep it private (quote courtesy of Roch Kubatko, MASNsports:
We haven’t talked about it since. It was just a disagreement that we had in the dugout. I’m not going to get into it. We’re going to keep it in-house. It’s private. It’s just something that happens sometimes. Frustration boils over a little bit when we’re not playing our best baseball the last couple of games.
I think it’s important to note that these things do happen. They happen on winning teams and losing teams. Granted the fact that a player went after the manager (and in public at that) can’t be overlooked, however these sort of things do occur.
Hyde said that he had already taken Davis out of the game, so there was something that happened in the game which didn’t sit right with Hyde. There was speculation that perhaps Davis didn’t hustle on chasing a foul ball (which ultimately ended up in the stands), or that he booted a throw to first. But one way or the other the manager removed him from the game, and that didn’t sit well with him.
Hyde, along with other players also said that the relationship between the two was very good. And anyone who’s followed Chris Davis should know that those actions are very out-of-character for him. He isn’t the type of guy to pull a stunt like that. Maybe he wasn’t happy about being lifted from the game, but frustration also had to play a role.
Birdland Crush 