Toronto Blue Jays manager John Gibbons (right) is tossed from the game by home plate umpire CB Bucknor (centre left) as Baltimore Orioles catcher Matt Wieters (centre right) looks on during first inning American League baseball action in Toronto on Friday June 19 , 2015. Gibbons took to the field to protest after Jays' Jose Bautista (left) was struck by a ball from Baltimore starting pitcher Mike Wright.Chris Young/The Canadian Press
The intense feelings between the Toronto Blue Jays and Baltimore Orioles are clearly evident to anybody who has watched the American League rivals battle it out hammer and tongs in recent seasons.
And Jose Bautista, the Blue Jays slugger who has been at the centre of much of the commotion, is not about to add any more fuel to the fire.
At least not Friday night at Rogers Centre when he once again became a target for a Baltimore pitcher, setting the tone for a testy affair in which the Blue Jays managed to hang on for a 5-4 victory.
Bautista got hit in the first inning in his first at bat against Baltimore starter Mike Wright that induced howls of protest from indignant Blue Jays fans.
Home plate umpire CB Bucknor immediately issued a warning to both dugouts and, when Toronto manager John Gibbons came out onto the field to discuss the issue, he was given a quick ejection.
Later in the game, Toronto reliever Roberto Osuna was ejected after hitting Adam Jones with a pitch in the eighth. That also resulted in the automatic ejection of Toronto bench coach DeMarlo Hale, who was running the game in the absence of Gibbons.
Bautista, for one, was not about to reveal his inner thoughts about what transpired early in the game in the first inning.
"I'm not going to contribute to turn this into TMZ or a gossip column," Bautista said. "I'd rather just talk about the facts and things that happened during the game."
Asked straight up if he felt Wright deliberately threw at him, Bautista took the high road – sort of.
"I was suspicious but I don't have any proof," he said. "And again, we're starting to talk about things that I don't want to talk about.
"We won a game, we have a great thing going on. The last three weeks we've been playing great baseball, we're winning a lot of games. I'm not going to change our focus or turn this into a circus."
Gibbons said he was only trying to find out from Bucknor his reason for issuing a warning to both teams so early in the game.
"When umpires give warnings, I've been out there before to talk about them," he said. "I've seen other guys be able to do it and I don't see ejections.
"There was, I don't know, a little paranoia or something there. I don't think that's right. I think I have a right to question."
Gibbons also said he felt the ejection of Osuna in the eighth was unwarranted.
He questioned why Osuna would want to intentionally hit Jones and load the bases in a 5-1 game and bring the tying run to the plate.
"I don't understand that one," Gibbons said. "But fortunately we won the game."
Osuna had left the clubhouse before the media had a chance to speak to him.