Orioles’ Davis hits ‘breaking point’ in dugout clash
Baltimore Orioles first baseman Chris Davis said Friday he reached a “breaking point,” which led to his outburst directed at manager Brandon Hyde in the dugout during Wednesday night’s game.
“I think it’s pretty obvious the offensive struggles I’ve had for quite some time,” Davis said outside the Orioles clubhouse before Friday’s game against the Houston Astros.
“I feel like, night in and night out, I’ve done a real good job of still being there on defence and trying to pick guys up and at that spot in the game, at that point in the series, that was kind of where it all ... like I said, I hit a breaking point.”
The Orioles were on their way to getting battered 14-2 by the visiting New York Yankees when Davis had to be restrained from going after Hyde during the fifth inning. Before that, the first baseman failed to pick up a throw from shortstop Jonathan Villar, putting Aaron Judge on base ahead of a two-run homer by Gio Urshela that gave the Yankees a 6-1 lead.
“It’s gonna happen when you have that much frustration, when you’re constantly having to deal with failure; you’re gonna have episodes where you just have to let it out,” Davis said. “Unfortunately, it was in the dugout. I wish it hadn’t been. I wish it had been underneath (in the tunnel to the clubhouse), but it happened and I can’t go back and change that.”
The MASN broadcast showed Davis yelling and trying to push through teammate Mark Trumbo, hitting coach Don Long and others as Hyde walked away and toward the tunnel to the locker-room. Shortly afterward, Davis was removed for pinch-hitter Jace Peterson.
Davis, who had struck out in his only at-bat of the game, was set to bat again with the Orioles down 6-1 before being pulled.
“We had words and I took him out of the game,” Hyde said afterward. “Me and Chris have a good relationship and these things happen in competitive environments and it’s something that’ll pass and we’ll get through it, but it’s unfortunate that it happened in the dugout.”
Hyde on Wednesday declined to get into specifics about the argument or what precipitated the incident.
“It was just a disagreement that we had in the dugout,” he said. “What was said and what we talked about, I’m not going to get into.”
After Thursday’s off-day, the two discussed the incident Friday, though the left-handed-hitting Davis was not in the starting lineup as the Orioles were set to face Astros left-hander Wade Miley.
“We sat down today and talked, I don’t know, over an hour,” Davis said.
“That’s just kind of when it all went down, I guess. We both knew that we had an off-day. I think it was probably best that we did, just to kind of give us a little bit of time. I didn’t think about it a whole lot. I tried not to. I think he was kind of in the same boat. When we’re not here and we’re not in uniform, we’re not working, we’re just regular human beings. I think he took a little time away from everything just to relax.”
Davis, 33, who is batting .182 with nine homers, 31 RBIS and 111 strikeouts in 84 games, had some time to recuperate with his wife and three daughters Thursday.
“I just spent time with my family. That’s really the only way that I know kind of how to escape is just to be a dad and be a husband,” Davis said. “I enjoyed the time with them, but I look forward to coming back in there and getting back to work with these guys.”
An all-star in 2013, he signed a seven-year, $161-million contract before the 2016 season, but has batted just .200 in 497 games since with 717 strikeouts.
These things happen in competitive environments and it’s something that’ll pass and we’ll get through it BRANDON HYDE