The Blue Jays didn’t want to hear from Orioles reliever Bryan Baker and the feeling was mutual.
After Baker struck out Matt Chapman to end the top of the seventh, he turned and appeared to say something to the Toronto dugout and made a “chirping” hand gesture that seemed to indicate he was tired of the talk from his opponent. It led to both benches and the bullpens clearing after Baker started to walk to the Blue Jays side at Camden Yards on Tuesday night.
No punches were thrown and the teams quickly dispersed. The Orioles went on to win the game 9-6 to move within 3 ½ of the Blue Jays for the final AL wild-card spot.
While Baker was calmly walked off the field by Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman, the Blue Jays’ Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Teoscar Hernández needed to be restrained by the Orioles Jorge Mateo. Guerrero and Hernandez did break free at one point but did not get far.
Baker allowed the first two Toronto hitters to reach base in the seventh, but with men on first and third, Hernández — who had homered off Baker in Monday’s first game — bounced into a double play. A run scored on that play to make it 6-5, but it left the bases empty.
“When I hit the groundball, he’s staring at me and saying, ‘Yeah, yeah,’” Hernández said. “And then he strikes out Chapman. As soon as he strikes out, he turns into our dugout and starts talking and pointing at me, and saying that I was talking too much. But I wasn’t talking. I wasn’t saying anything.”
Baker saw it differently, though he said he probably should have handled the situation better.
“It was nothing towards their team or anything. It was just kind of letting him know that I know that he’s talking,” Baker said. “There’s really no issue with the team or anything like that. I don’t think that there’s any bad blood or anything like that. I was just letting him know that really.”
— with AP