Baltimore Orioles manager Buck Showalter had to be restrained by umpires after he and New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi got into a heated exchange on the field between the first and second innings at Orioles Park at Camden Yards Monday night due to Girardi accusing the Orioles of stealing signs.
Girardi yelled at Orioles third base coach Bobby Dickerson because the manager was infuriated due to his belief that Dickerson was stealing signs. USA Today Sports reports that Dickerson heard Girardi chirping from the dugout during the bottom of the first and the third base coach said he had never been yelled at like that by an opposing manager before.
Showalter wouldn't stand for it, as he stormed onto the field following the bottom of the first to give Girardi a piece of his mind. Both benches cleared as both managers fired some choice words at each other, but no ejections were handed out and the game continued unaltered.
Once everything settled down and went back to normal, Showalter was still angry and was shown on camera shaking his head and staring a hole through Girardi from the opposite dugout.
The Orioles (77-66) eventually took the game 4-2 and moved closer to their pursuit of a wildcard spot in the American League. Baltimore moved to just 1.5 games behind the Tampa Bay Rays (78-64), who were idle last night and own the second wildcard spot. The Yankees (76-68) fell to three games back of Tampa Bay, and would need to jump Baltimore, Cleveland (77-66) and Tampa to claim a postseason berth.
Girardi was mum about the specifics of the incident following the game, and offered up just a few words about it.
"The one thing that I've done, the whole time that I'm here, and everywhere I've been, is I'm going to protect our players at all lengths," the Yankees skipper said following the loss per USA Today. "That's what I'm going to do, and there was something that I saw and I'm just going to leave it at that."
Showalter said he wasn't going to "broadcast" whether or not he and Girardi would talk in private following the incident, but did add that he was protecting his third base coach.
"Joe's a good man, he was yelling at the third base coach and since I'm wearing black and orange I won't let that happen," Showalter said in the postgame interview per MLB.com about defending his third base coach against Girardi.
Baltimore's Chris Tillman improved to 16-5 with the win, and allowed two runs and four hits in seven-plus innings while striking out nine. Alex Rodriguez hit his 652nd career homerun in the contest, and is just eight round-trippers shy of tying Willie Mays for fourth place all-time in that category.
With the wildcard race heating up and this being such an important series for both the Yankees and the Orioles, it's easy to see how emotions can explode onto the field this time of year.
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