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Rob Manfred explains why he intervened in Red Sox-Orioles feud

Rob Manfred

The heated series when the Boston Red Sox hosted the Baltimore Orioles this week caused a stir in the baseball world.

The drama seemed to unfold when Matt Barnes threw at Manny Machado last month and began to trickle from there.

Chris Sale threw behind Machado in a later game (watch here) and escaped punishment, while Baltimore starter Kevin Gausman was tossed after tossing a 77 mile an hour secondary pitch at a batter.

In the middle of it all, five-time All-Star Adam Jones was dealing with a situation when a Boston fan shouted a racial slur at him. The fan was later banned after he had been identified.

The situation was handled as best as it possibly could have been, but Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred felt it was appropriate to step in and put a stop to the madness.

A couple days later, he explained his reasoning behind the unprecedented move.

“I felt it was different than the normal I-hit-your-guy, you-hit-my-guy,” Manfred told ESPN Friday. “As a matter of fact, it persisted so long it was hard to trace back who had hit who when and whose turn it was.

“There was at least one pitch that was of grave concern to us, a second one that was of serious concern. We just didn’t want to see it go any further.”

Manfred is correct across the board. There were so many aspects to the story, it took a while to trace back to the timeline and figure out “who done it?”

This was way more than a pitcher backing up his team and throwing at a batter from the beginning, so Manfred knew he had to step in with an intervention.

The four-game series ended Thursday night filled to the brim with beanballs, racial slurs, ejections, and fines which meant the record was almost something to be forgotten about.

The teams will reunite on June 1 at Camden Yards. Hopefully by then tempers will have simmered and players can just enjoy the game.

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