Orioles' Jones rips Bautista for HR celebration: 'Respect the game'
A relatively mundane blowout at Rogers Centre on Tuesday night intensified in a hurry when Toronto Blue Jays star Jose Bautista stepped to the plate in the seventh inning against Jason Garcia of the Baltimore Orioles.
Beset with an 11-3 deficit and a runner on second base in the bottom of the seventh, Garcia unloaded a fastball that sailed behind Bautista, who has a dubious personal history with Orioles reliever Darren O'Day.
After staring down the 22-year-old reliever, Bautista promptly exacted his revenge by clobbering a two-run shot over the wall in left-centre field he couldn't help but admire.
In the ensuing - and highly eventful - trip around the bases, Bautista exchanged words with Orioles second baseman Ryan Flaherty before staring down the Orioles' dugout as he touched home plate.
The hostilities only intensified from that point on, as Bautista engaged in some rancorous dialogue with Orioles outfielder Adam Jones as he trotted out to take his position in the top of the eighth inning. After the game, Bautista accused Jones of instigating the exchange.
"He said, ‘That's bush league,'" Bautista recalled. "And I said, 'What's bush league is you throwing behind my head'"
Though the heated chatter between Bautista and Jones was eventually quashed by an umpire, Bautista's anger manifested again moments later when he tried to throw out Delmon Young at first base on a soft line drive to right field. The gesture wasn't exactly appreciated by Young, who easily beat the throw and offered Bautista some thoughts of his own after safely reaching first base.
After the Blue Jays secured a 13-6 victory, several members of the Orioles voiced their displeasure with Bautista, whose first homer of the season, incidentally, came in Baltimore back on April 12.
"Let's not walk halfway to first down the line," Jones told Sportsnet's Ben Nicholson-Smith. "Come on. Respect the game. And I know he does but at that moment right there he didn't. ... You ain't gonna sit there and pimp me. You pimp the pitchers, you're pimping me too."
"You'd just like to see people react like it’s not the first time they've hit a (home run)," added Orioles manager Buck Showalter, whose club dropped its second straight game Tuesday.
Bautista, however, refused to apologize for his showmanship, given the circumstances.
"I play with a lot of passion, you throw at me, I’m not going to forget," he told Sportsnet's Shi Davidi. "If I get you right after then I’m going to enjoy it. And I did."
(Videos courtesy: MLB.com)