Baltimore Orioles pitcher Kevin Gausman was tossed from Wednesday night’s game against the Red Sox after hitting Xander Bogaerts with a curveball. (Getty)
There was more drama between the Baltimore Orioles and Boston Red Sox on Wednesday night as the O’s Kevin Gausman was tossed by home plate umpire Sam Holbrook after hitting Xander Bogaerts with a curveball in the bottom of the second inning.
Immediately after being ejected, Gausman and catcher Caleb Joseph appeared incredulous as usually a pitcher wouldn’t intentionally try to hit someone with a 77 mph breaking ball. Gausman was replaced by Richard Bleier.
Orioles center fielder Adam Jones was also ejected from the contest by Holbrook in the fifth inning for arguing balls and strikes.
The incident comes one night after Boston’s Chris Sale threw a 98 mph fast ball behind Orioles third baseman Manny Machado. Both benches were promptly warned but no one received an ejection.
The early season feud developed between the two AL East rivals after Machado went spikes up into Dustin Pedroia a little over a week ago when the teams met at Camden Yards. Pedroia was forced to miss a few games after the controversial slide appeared to get him in his surgically repaired left knee and ankle.
Two days later, Red Sox reliever Matt Barnes was ejected and subsequently suspended for four games for throwing over the head of Machado.
That should have been the end of it but on Monday night Baltimore’s Dylan Bundy pegged Boston’s Mookie Betts on the left hip with a 94 mph heater.
Earlier Wednesday, Major League Baseball reportedly held a conference call with the two teams to tell them “enough is enough.”
WATCH Gausman’s pitch and ejection here: