If the Orioles and Kansas City Royals showed up at Camden Yards on Wednesday ready for another fight, there wasn't a ton of disappointment when a baseball game broke out instead.
How could there be? These are two teams playing the long game, even in early June. The Royals want to keep their World Series crown. The Orioles want to take it from them. So just as Orioles manager Buck Showalter assumed before the game, Tuesday's fight involving two of the 50 men between the two rosters — shortstop Manny Machado and pitcher Yordano Ventura — stayed yesterday's news and two good teams got down to baseball.
"It's one of those things where you go out there play the game and try to score more runs than they do in the nine innings," Showalter said in the afternoon. "If there's something [that] happens along the way, you deal with it. …
"We'll deal with them right now, and our focus is right now trying to beat them on the field. They're good. That's why they were the last team standing last year."
Eventually, the Orioles got to that, with a 4-0 win clinching a series sweep of the floundering Royals. It gave the Orioles seven wins on their just-completed 10-game homestand. But first, 19,178 fans watching the night's proceedings had to acknowledge Tuesday's events. It was all anyone could talk about around baseball Wednesday. Everyone with a pulpit offered opinions on the players involved.
Royals manager Ned Yost defended his pitcher for a second day, though he conceded pitching inside has and will be a problem for Ventura given his reputation for throwing at opposing stars. Showalter defended Machado's reputation, though the All-Star was largely absolved for his role in the incident.
When Machado came to the plate in the first inning, much of the home crowd gave him a roaring, standing ovation. They chanted his name, and then he struck out. Machado finished the game 0-for-4.
Then to begin the third inning, Orioles starter Chris Tillman lost a breaking ball inside to third baseman Cheslor Cuthbert that dropped him to the seat of his pants. The crowd buzzed. Cuthbert dusted himself off, stood up and doubled down the left-field line.
Otherwise, the responsibility for order fell on Tillman and Royals starter Edinson Volquez to establish that the tension from a day earlier wasn't going to spill over to a second game.
"I just pitch my game," Tillman said in the aftermath of Tuesday's fight, level-headed despite being riled up by what had transpired. "I've got to do the same thing every time out."
He followed through, matching zeroes with Volquez through the first four innings without much fanfare. Showalter was never worried about Tillman's role in the extracurricular storyline.
"Believe me, I know Chris pretty well," Showalter said before the game. "There's a strong competitive fire there, but he's really good at funneling it toward the competition. Sometimes you worry about it going too much the other way, where guys get too emotional with it and don't focus on the task at hand. This game counts tonight. The game counted last night. Which way are you more proud of, the way our club responded in the game of baseball or the other stuff? The biggest payback is beating 'em. That's really where you get the most."
Tillman tied a career high with nine strikeouts while walking none in 7 1/3 scoreless innings, picking up a career-high 19 swinging strikes on the outing. He was more than happy to return the focus to the field.
"We wanted to come out today and win a series," Tillman said. "And I think we did a good job of getting back to what we do. And we played a pretty solid game throughout."
"There's a lot of things going on, emotions, but once you get into the game it's about the competition and trying to win," Showalter said after the win. "Sometimes the greatest emotions show themselves in silence, so to speak. If your actions speak pretty loud, you don't have to talk a lot about it."
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