Baltimore Orioles reliever Bryan Baker says he has no issue with his former employer -- the Toronto Blue Jays.
However, he didn't sound overly impressed with one specific Blue Jay -- outfielder Teoscar Hernandez -- after an exchange that led to the benches clearing on Tuesday night.
"Like I said, I was part of that organization, I know some of those guys," Baker told reporters after Baltimore's 9-6 win. "No problems with them. Didn't hear anything negative at all. Just, uh, just a personal problem that I probably should have handled a different way but it just kind of came out."
Baker had words with Hernandez after the Blue Jay grounded into a double play in the top of the seventh. The right-hander then struck out Matt Chapman to end the inning and then looked into the Blue Jays dugout and made a yapping motion with his hand.
That led to both benches clearing, leading to warnings from umpire Jeff Nelson.
“Just a disagreement, just something that got taken too far. It probably shouldn’t have come to that. It was just a disagreement with Teoscar who I’ve played with before. It just went a little bit too far," Baker said.
“Everybody knows at this point, I’m pretty fired up, I’m pretty intense out there. It was nothing towards their team or anything. It was just kind of letting him know that I know he’s talking. There’s really no issue with the team or anything like that. I don’t think there’s any bad blood or anything like that. I was just letting him know that, really.”
Hernandez felt Baker's anger may have stemmed from Monday's doubleheader.
“I guess he was mad because yesterday I hit a homer. Every time he pitches against us, he tries to make a show,” Hernandez said. “When I hit the ground ball, he's staring at me and saying, 'Yeah, yeah.' Like I don't know what happened. And then he strikes out Chapman and he turned into our dugout and started talking and pointing at me, saying that I was talking too much. But I wasn't talking, I wasn't saying anything. And then he started walking and I just reacted.”
Baker, acquired by the Blue Jays as a player to be named later in a trade with the Colorado Rockies for right-hander Seung-hwan Oh in 2018, made his major-league debut with Toronto last season when he pitched one inning in September.
The Orioles claimed him off waivers in November.
COMMENTS
When submitting content, please abide by our submission guidelines, and avoid posting profanity, personal attacks or harassment. Should you violate our submissions guidelines, we reserve the right to remove your comments and block your account. Sportsnet reserves the right to close a story’s comment section at any time.