Matt Barnes Ends Appeal Of Four-Game Suspension For Manny Machado Incident

Matt Barnes’ appeal attempt appears to be over.

The Boston Red Sox right-handed reliever initially indicated he would appeal his four-game suspension for throwing near Manny Machado’s head Sunday against the Baltimore Orioles, but multiple Sox beat reporters relayed the news Wednesday that he dropped his appeal.

As a result, Barnes will miss two games against the New York Yankees — Wednesday and Thursday — and two games against the Chicago Cubs — Friday and Saturday — before being eligible to return Sunday against the Cubs.

The suspension came as a result of this play:

Matt Barnes throws at Manny Machado for spiking Pedroia on Friday pic.twitter.com/X70Fb3KvgD

— Boston Sports Info (@bostonsportsinf) April 23, 2017

Barnes later denied it was intentional.

Barnes: "I would never intentionally throw at somebody's head. That's a line you don't cross. He has every right to be mad."

— Brian MacPherson (@brianmacp) April 23, 2017

The play was believed to be in response to Machado injuring Dustin Pedroia’s knee on a slide Friday night. Pedroia won’t be in the Red Sox’s starting lineup Wednesday against the Yankees as he continues to recover.

Thumbnail photo via Greg M. Cooper/USA TODAY Sports Images