Manny Machado isn’t exactly the most popular player in baseball these days, but that doesn’t mean he’s not doing everything he can to stay in his team’s lineup.
The Baltimore Orioles third baseman confirmed Tuesday that he was appealing the five-game suspension he received earlier in the day, which was scheduled to start immediately. Machado was in the lineup for Baltimore’s Tuesday night game, a 1-0 loss to the Boston Red Sox, and went 0-for-4 with a strikeout.
Machado was fined and suspended for five games for throwing his bat in the direction of third base during Sunday’s game against the Oakland A’s. The incident, provoked when A’s reliever Fernando Abad threw inside on Machado earlier in the at-bat, caused the benches to clear and resulted in Machado and Abad both being ejected.
Abad was also fined for his role in the incident but was not suspended.
“I don’t want to be down for five days,” Machado said, via ESPN. “We’re just going to go ahead and get that down, and that’s it. Need to try to help out this team in any way.”
The 21-year-old All-Star has gotten off to a slow start in 2014, batting at a .222 clip with four home runs and just 11 RBIs after missing the entire month of April to recover from offseason knee surgery.
Machado’s hearing could take place next week in New York, but manager Buck Showalter told reporters it’s possible he drops the appeal as soon as Wednesday.
“We’ll see what tomorrow brings,” Showalter said. “I think right now he’s going to appeal and take 24 hours to think about the next step.”
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