On Friday night, Boston Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia suffered knee and ankle injuries after getting spiked by Baltimore Orioles star Manny Machado on a slide at second base:

You can see in the video that Machado’s spikes went high on the slide. Naturally, the Red Sox are left viewing the play as dirty and intentional, because that’s what teams do when they’re on the wrong side of those things. And maybe it was intentional, but Machado was adamant with his claim it was unintentional in the postgame:

Fast-forward to Sunday’s Red Sox-Orioles series finale. Pedroia missed his second consecutive game with his leg injuries, and it was reported earlier in the day that he would receive an MRI for the injuries on Monday:

So, the Red Sox are likely even more frustrated now.

And in the bottom of the eighth of Sunday’s game, Red Sox reliever Matt Barnes threw and up-and-in fastball that just missed Machado’s head. It hit Machado’s bat for a foul ball, but Barnes was ejected, as anyone watching the game assumed the pitch was very intentional, and very dangerous:

The most interesting part of the situation was Pedroia telling Machado from the dugout that he didn’t ask for that pitch:

After the game, Pedroia called throwing at Machado a “mishandled situation” and said, “that’s not how you do that.” He also said that there was “zero intention of [Machado}” trying to hurt him:

Machado also responded to Pedroia’s comments:

As you’d expect, Barnes said that the pitch got away from him, but few people are buying that.

The fact that the ball hit Machado’s bat shouldn’t change a thing with how that pitch is viewed, as it could’ve easily hit Machado in the head. It will be interesting to see how MLB responds to this. Head-hunting needs to stop already.

[Photo Credit: NESN; MLB]

About Matt Clapp

Matt is an editor at The Comeback. He attended Colorado State University, wishes he was Saved by the Bell's Zack Morris, and idolizes Larry David. And loves pizza and dogs because obviously.

He can be followed on Twitter at @Matt2Clapp (also @TheBlogfines for Cubs/MLB tweets and @DaBearNecess for Bears/NFL tweets), and can be reached by email at mclapp@thecomeback.com.