Major League Baseball officials are reportedly reviewing the controversial incident in which Chris Archer threw behind Jose Bautista on Sunday.
Archer, who got the start for the Tampa Bay Rays in the final game of a three-game series versus the Toronto Blue Jays, sent a pitch flying behind Bautista’s back in the first inning.
As Sportsnet’s Arden Zwelling reported, “Bautista stood still in the batter’s box and took a long, intense stare out at Archer, who walked off the mound towards Bautista, returning the glare. Home plate umpire Jim Wolf came out from behind the plate to warn Archer, along with both dugouts. Neither Archer nor his manager, Kevin Cash, argued with Wolf about the warnings.”
Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said after the game, which Toronto won 3–1, that he felt Archer’s actions warranted a suspension.
“I would expect there’s got to be some kind of suspension, the way they’re handling things now,” he said. “I saw the Machado thing the other day. The ball was thrown behind him. Now, if the umpire had not issued a warning, okay, maybe he didn’t think something was wrong. But since he issued a warning, maybe he was thinking, maybe something’s not right here. So, if the umpire thinks there was a reason, maybe he thought there was some intent.”
Gibbons added that he would be “disappointed” if the league didn’t address the issue.
There has been some enmity between the two teams this year. Toronto shortstop Troy Tulowitzki took issue with a slide by Steven Souza Jr. at Tropicana Field last month, and Blue Jays reliever Joe Biagini hit Souza on the hand with a pitch that appeared to be unintentional at Rogers Centre on Saturday.
Archer said Sunday that he didn’t intend to throw behind Bautista—”The ball got away from me a little bit,” he explained—while Bautista, when asked whether he thought Archer’s action had been intentional, responded: “I don’t know.”
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