Tension rises for Orioles, Red Sox

A tempestuous three-game series between the Red Sox and Orioles wound up with Matt Barnes ejected for throwing a fastball behind the head of Baltimore star Manny Machado in Boston’s 6-2 victory Sunday.

Barnes’ ejection was the latest facet of this tense rivalry between AL East rivals. His high, inside pitch came two days after Machado took out Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia with a spikes-high slide.

Pedroia watched from the dugout for a second straight day Sunday with knee and ankle injuries. Machado apologized with a text message Friday night, but that evidently wasn’t the end of it.

When Machado batted in the sixth inning, Eduardo Rodriguez threw three pitches near his knees. He came up again in the eighth and Barnes’ pitch whizzed behind Machado and hit his bat. The ball hit Machado and rolled foul, and plate umpire Andy Fletcher tossed Barnes.

Boston manager John Farrell — who on Saturday called the league office to discuss about what he called “an illegal slide” by Machado — insisted Barnes’ wayward pitch was nothing more than an accident.

“He was trying to take a four-seamer in and above his hands and the pitch got away from him,” Farrell said.

But Orioles first baseman Chris Davis thought the fastball was intentionally directed at Machado’s head.

“I think it was completely obvious,” Davis said. “I haven’t seen a guy miss that bad in a while — behind a guy’s head.”

Phillies: Three consecutive homers by Cesar Hernandez, Aaron Altherr and Odubel Herrera in the eighth inning Sunday was the first time the Phillies went backto-back-to-back since 2008, when Chase Utley, Ryan Howard and Pat Burrell did it at St. Louis.

Astros: