We saw a bit of drama that wasn't really necessary in the Orioles' 7-5 loss to the ChiSox last night. First off, Adam Jones was hit in the shoulder by a pitch in the fourth inning. At the time, I didn't think anything of it even given that it came immedately on the heels of a Luke Scott home run (Jones would later come into score). In the bottom of the inning, Jones went back out to centerfield, but was forced to take himself out of the ballgame when he found out that he couldn't lift his arm to throw or swing. In the seventh inning, Gordon Beckham hit a go-ahead three-run homer, which was followed up later in the inning by Alex Rios being hit with a Jeremy Guthrie pitch. Guthrie said after the game that he didn't mean to throw the pitch there, however both benches were warned none the less.
I see teams exchange hit batsmen all the time, intentional or not. I recognize that umpires have an obligation to keep order in games, and to do everything in their power to prevent fights. (Which is odd if you think about it, because it seems that everytime there's a major bench-clearing brawl in a game it's water cooler material in offices across the country the following day.) Nevertheless, that was Guthrie's 13th hit batsman this season. Furthermore, it was fairly evident at the time that he was a pitcher that was starting to lose his control due to an elevated pitch count (Guthrie threw 97 pitches over 6.2 innings). Yet the umpire thought it appropriate to warn both benches thinking that some sort of gamesmanship might be going on. This isn't the first time this has happened with Guthrie this season. On June 22nd against the Marlins Guthrie hit a batter early in the ballgame, prompting a warning to both benches. I had the same impression there as I do now; sometimes guys get hit in games.
So am I saying that struggling teams such as the Orioles have a double-standard that works against them in cases like this? Perhaps. However on the flip side, we also need to keep in mind that all of this is at the discretion of the umpire. If he feels that a situation is getting heated or that people are being hit purposely, he's required to warn both benches. But to further my talking point, I would also point to a situation last week involving the New York Yankees. In a game against the Tigers, both benches were warned early in the game about hitting people. Yet in the later innings, a New York pitcher hit a Detroit batter without being ejected from the game. Manager Jim Leyland came out to argue that the pitcher (as well as NY manager Joe Girardi) should be tossed since the bench had been warned; Leyland was tossed himself for arguing that point! In the bottom of the inning, the Tiger pitcher hit a NY batter, and he was ejected. That seems awful funny to me. Yet if a team like the Orioles looks at someone wrong, they get a warning. (Go figure, after the game the Yankees swore over hell or high water that they didn't purposely throw at anyone...the Tigers declined to comment on whether they did or not.)
I'm not saying that there's a bias in favor of winning teams or against loosing teams. However the games matter much more to teams like the Yankees in the here and now than they do to the O's. These two situations aren't related in anyway, however I guess my point is that in the situation last night the umpire should have seen that he was dealing with a pitcher that was tiring and thus struggling with his control. And as I said, Guthrie's hit plenty of batters this year. Yet when the Orioles try to argue a point with umpires or get involved with one during a game, they might as well be speaking Japanese. What comes first, the chicken or the egg?
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