TORONTO — When Orioles catcher Caleb Joseph ducked out of the way of an Aaron Sanchez pitch that sailed near his head during his first at-bat Wednesday night, there wasn't much thought that Sanchez did it intentionally.
In the Orioles' 4-2 loss to the Blue Jays Wednesday, Sanchez was battling with his control all night. He walked seven batters in 5 1/3 innings.
And even though Joseph has played a role in the growing feud between the Orioles and Blue Jays -– Marcus Stroman threw at Joseph's head last season after Jose Reyes accused him of stepping on his hand on a play at the plate -– the pitch became rather irrelevant, especially considering the events of the past 48 hours.
"The pitch they threw [at Joseph] -- not intentionally -– you've got a young pitcher [out there], like there was last year [when Stroman] threw one at Caleb and nobody said a word in our dugout," Showalter said. "That's just part of the game. You've got a young pitcher out there, sometimes doesn't know where it's going."
Part of the game.
Cooler heads prevailed on Wednesday. Bautista watched from the dugout, sitting out after aggravating a shoulder sprain in his throwing arm after trying to gun down Delmon Young from right field on a single.
"That's part of the game," first baseman Chris Davis said about Tuesday's events. "Sometimes your emotions get the best of you. I feel like we play Bautista or play the Blue Jays, there's a pitch up and in to Jose. You've got to try to get in on good hitters. I've had I don't know how many guys throw up and in to me. It's not a comfortable feeling, but I understand what they're trying to do. This game is too important to let your emotions get the best of you and let it affect your win-loss and I think they understand that."
Before Wednesday's game, some Orioles players were still steaming from Tuesday's incident, especially at the fact the incident again surfaced around Bautista.
They won't say it, but the Orioles think Bautista takes showmanship too far. Obviously they've seen more of it because the last two times Bautista felt he was being throwing at by the Orioles, he's made the O's eat crow by hitting a home run against them. But when he showed up 22-year-old rookie Rule 5 pick Jason Garcia, it lit a fire within the Orioles.
Bautista's teammate, first baseman Edwin Encarnacion, can also be slow out of the batter's box. In fact, when Encarnacion hit his second homer of the night Tuesday, he was probably just as slow as Bautista, but he went into a full jog as the rounded the bases with his patented chicken-wing strut. But the Orioles have no problem with him.
When he's not demolishing bullpen phones, even David Ortiz doesn't seem to ruffle feathers as much as Bautista. He shows up umpires and is casual around the bases and was just handed a one-game suspension for arguing a check swing against the Orioles this weekend.
You won't see Orioles players stand and admire their home runs. During spring training, Cuban outfielder Dariel Alvarez –- who was in big league camp for the first time -– admired a home run he hit in Sarasota. It didn't fly with Showalter and the players in the clubhouse. Showalter eased up on Alvarez when he found out he knew the pitcher was also Cuban and had a history with him.
But there's something about Bautista's theatrics that incenses the Orioles. And on Tuesday, it was the jawing around the bases, but the Orioles were more upset about his long stare into the Orioles dugout. Most guys wouldn't do that.
And again, some of it has to do with the fact that Bautista has had the Orioles' number of late, as Bautista hit homers following each of the last two times he had a pitch thrown at him in the first two altercations.
And I'd be surprised to see Bautista play in Thursday's series finale, so the tension and drama will dwindle as the days pass. The Blue Jays don't play the Orioles until May 11-13 and the Orioles don't return to Toronto until June 23-25, so there will be time for this to die down.
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