Music: {allcanada} Birds caged

Monday, September 27, 2010

{allcanada} Birds caged

TORONTO -- Toronto Blue Jays slugger Jose Bautista isn't sure what message the Baltimore Orioles may have been trying to convey by hitting him twice in the same game, but he has no doubt they were throwing at him intentionally.

The big-league home run leader said Monday he believes Orioles reliever Alfredo Simon was ordered to hit him, and apparently Major League Baseball agrees. Simon was suspended for three games, manager Buck Showalter was banned for one and Blue Jays starter Shaun Marcum was given a US$750 fine for pegging Luke Scott, a punishment he intends to appeal.

"I think they knew what they were doing," Bautista said after learning of the discipline. "On the second time I got hit it was pretty obvious. I don't care what their comments were after the game, I did read them. I don't believe what they said.

"That doesn't give me any pleasure that they got suspended or whatever -- it's just what they deserved."

The ugly incidents took place in Toronto's 5-2 win Sunday.

Bautista was struck on the forearm in the third inning by starter Rick VandenHurk, and Marcum grazed Scott with a pitch in the fourth, leading to warnings for both teams. Simon then came on in the fifth, just missed Bautista with his second pitch, then connected with his third.

Both Simon and Showalter were ejected, and after the game Showalter insisted it was all accidental. Bautista wasn't buying it.

"I do get along pretty well with Simon, so the fact that he hit me, that's another indicator to me that he might have been told to do so," said Bautista.

"I think he was following orders, I don't think he wanted to hit me."

Blue Jays third base coach Brian Butterfield, close friends with Showalter, spoke with the Orioles manager Monday and said he was told the incident was accidental, and that Simon simply lost control of two straight pitches. He said he accepted the explanation after initially being very angry about the whole thing.

Still, Bautista was left with questions about why the Orioles would target him.

"I just don't know what the message is. What message can they be sending?" he asked.

When someone suggested stop hitting homers -- he had nine to go with six doubles, a triple, 19 RBIs and 19 runs in 18 games versus Baltimore this season -- Bautista countered: "Make better pitches."

"I'm not trying to get cocky or anything," he continued. "I'm just trying to find answers for you guys and I don't have them, I don't know what their train of thought was."

Marcum was left feeling the same way about his fine.

He wasn't warned after hitting Scott, so he was caught off-guard by the decision to discipline him.

"Definitely appeal it," he said. "I think everybody around here knows I have good enough control that if I'm going to hit somebody I'll square them up in the back. I'm not going to hit them in the sleeve or something like that."

Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston praised the punishments and hoped they would ease the bad blood between the teams. But he said a carryover into next season was entirely possible.

"It's not like they're not going to play them again ever," said Gaston. "I won't be here, but maybe I'll run out of the stands and help throw some blows or something like that.

"We had a chance to retaliate in the last inning if we wanted to but we didn't do that, we're trying to win a ball game at the particular time. They're going to play these guys for a long time, hopefully it's over with but I don't know. Depends on what the next manager says. Sometimes the players take it upon themselves to go and do what they need to do."