Manny Machado probably had it coming after his dangerous takeout slide of Dustin Pedroia on Friday night. But even Pedroia doesn’t condone how his Boston Red Sox teammate dealt retribution.
In the eighth inning of Sunday’s eventual 6-2 win over the Baltimore Orioles, Red Sox reliever Matt Barnes threw at Machado’s head, earning himself an immediate ejection.
NESN’s cameras caught Pedroia and Machado exchanging words after the incident, with Pedroia appearing to tell Machado that Barnes’ actions weren’t in line with how he would have handled the situation.
“It’s not me,” Pedroia appears to tell Machado. “If if I wanted to do something, I would have hit you the first time.”
In short: Pedroia wasn’t OK with how Barnes chose to retaliate. The Red Sox second baseman reiterated that point after the game while apologizing to Machado and the Orioles.
“That’s not how you do that, man,” Pedroia said after the game, as aired on NESN. “Sorry to him and his team. If you’re going to protect guys, you do it right away. He knows that, and both teams know that.
“So, definitely a mishandled situation. There were zero intentions of him trying to hurt me. He just made a bad slide, and he did hurt me. I’m not mad at him. I love Manny Machado.”
Pedroia’s comments show a pretty high level of respect for Machado, as he opted not to defend his teammate by extending an apology to the Orioles third baseman. These teams face each other again for a three-game series starting May 1, though, so this apparent beef between American League East rivals might not be over.
Thumbnail photo via screenshot/MLB.tv
