Understandably, Zach Britton just wants to be a part of the action.
On a contentious day where the Orioles and Red Sox both sounded like reasonable people once a 6-2 Sox win was over, one player had to spout off for no reason.
Britton, the dominant Orioles closer, on Sunday suggested to BaltimoreBaseball.com that Dustin Pedroia doesn’t have a grasp of the Red Sox clubhouse, because Pedroia didn’t stop a teammate from attempting to retaliate on Pedroia’s behalf.
“Dustin, him telling Manny (Machado), ‘Hey, that (pitch) didn’t come from me’ may be even more frustrating,” Britton told reporter Dan Connolly. “Because he’s the leader of that clubhouse and if he can’t control his own teammates, then there’s a bigger issue over there.”
Machado dodged a high pitch from Matt Barnes on Sunday, two days after Machado spiked Pedroia with a slide.
From the dugout Sunday — he couldn't play because the slide injured him — Pedroia yelled over to Machado to make clear he didn’t ask for retaliation. (LINK:http://www.csnne.com/boston-red-sox/evan-drellich-boston-red-sox-baltimore-orioles-should-leave-manny-machado-dustin-pedroia-feud-past)
Pedroia on Sunday said he loved Machado and apologized to the Orioles. Barnes apologized as well.
Boston Red Sox
Britton elaborated on his view of leadership that Pedroia did not exhibit.
“As a player that doesn’t have the most service time in this room, when a guy like Adam Jones tells me to do something or not to do something, I’m going to do (what he says). Same with Chris Davis or Darren O’Day, the guy in my bullpen,” Britton said. “If they tell me, ‘Don’t do this or that,’ I’m going to listen to them because they’ve been around the game and they’ve seen things I haven’t seen. And you respect their leadership.”
One potential positive for both sides: Britton indicated the Orioles may see this as a dead issue going forward, if the Sox don’t instigate something further. Although, it’s hard to fathom why the Sox would.
“That’s up to them. Well see what they do in Boston,” Britton told BaltimoreBaseball.com. “I think we’ve talked about it already, as a team, and we’ll see how they choose to act — whether or not they choose to act professionally or unprofessionally when we get to Boston.”