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Pedroia right to call out teammate over buzzing Orioles' Machado | John Smallwood

Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia said his getting spiked was just part of baseball and didn’t need retaliation

IN A PERFECT WORLD, Boston Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia would set a precedent with the way he handled last weekend's series of events involving him, Baltimore Orioles third baseman Manny Machado and Red Sox pitcher Matt Barnes.

Pedroia made the uncharacteristic move of calling out his own teammate by saying, "That's not how you do that, man."

On Sunday, Barnes was ejected from a game for throwing a fastball that came dangerously close to hitting Machado in the head.

The running theory is that Barnes threw at Machado in retaliation for injuring Pedroia while trying to break up a doubleplay Friday. Machado hurt Pedroia with what looked like a spike-high slide in the eighth inning.

"There was zero intention of (Machado) trying to hurt me (Friday night)," Pedroia said. "He just made a bad slide. He did hurt me. It's baseball, man."

Machado apologized to Pedroia in a text message that night.

Had he been drilled in the side of the rump the next time he came to the plate, everyone likely would have accepted it as a message being sent and dismissed it as part of the game.

However, Machado came to the plate four times on Saturday with no incident. Machado had come to the plate three previous times in Sunday's game and nothing.

In the eighth inning, Barnes, who throws a fastball in the high 90s, let loose at Machado's head. The pitch hit the bat after Machado ducked.

Barnes, who received a four-game suspension Monday, and Red Sox manager John Farrell claimed it was an inside pitch that got away, but catcher Christian Vasquez had made a demonstrative move to set up on the outside corner of the plate.

Later, from the Orioles dugout, Machado yelled at Pedroia, who responded, "It wasn't me. I know that and you know that."

In the Red Sox locker room after the game, Pedroia did not parse words while saying he in no way agreed with what Barnes had done.

"I just told him I didn't have anything to do with that," Pedroia told the Providence Journal. "That's not how you do that, man. I'm sorry to (Machado) and his team.

"If you're going to protect guys, you do it right away. (Barnes) knows that. We both know that. It's definitely a mishandled situation."

Now I know some will consider what Pedroia did as breaking clubhouse protocol by saying he thought his pitcher was wrong.

I applaud Pedroia.

Had it just been Machado or another Oriole complaining about what Barnes did, the story would have been mostly ignored. When it's a teammate talking about another teammate, it highlights a potentially dangerous situation that is considered a part of the game.

I understand that some of these "unwritten rules" in sports exist, but the biggest one is that you don't intentionally try to hurt other players.

If Machado had a baseball-sized red mark on his hip or some sore ribs, I would still think throwing at a batter is stupid, but I wouldn't be as alarmed.

A pitcher deliberately throwing a fastball at a batter's head, however, is about as dangerous as anything you will see in sports.

A batter's reaction time for a 95-mph fastball thrown from 60 feet, 6 inches away is estimated at less than 0.4 seconds - that's maybe two blinks of an eye.

During that time a batter must spot the ball with his eyes, determine spin, speed and location of the pitch and determine whether to swing.

That's all done with the general expectation that a pitcher is trying to throw the ball somewhere in the general vicinity of the strike zone.

No batter anticipates having a ball thrown at his head, and if his reaction is slow . . .

In the long history of Major League Baseball, Cleveland Indians shortstop Ray Chapman in 1920 is still the only player to die from being hit by a pitch during a game.

Dozens of players, however, have had their careers derailed by being hit in the head by a pitch.

Because baseball is a game, we often overlook the fact that a 5-ounce sphere of cork, yarn and cowhide in the hands of a pitcher with a live arm can also be a dangerous weapon.

"I would never intentionally throw at someone's head. That's kind of a line you don't cross," Barnes said.

Pedroia believes Barnes did, and, by saying it was wrong, he provides a teaching moment.

You play the game hard. You play the game to win. Heck, sometimes you even fudge the rules a little if it will help.

Some of the "unwritten rules" are debatable and others are just plain stupid.

The one thing all athletes should agree on is that you never intentionally do something that could injure another player and cost him his career.

smallwj@phillynews.com

@SmallTerp