Blaze Alexander suffered a fracture in his left hand after being hit by a pitch in the Orioles’ 8-2 win over the Royals, leading to a bench-clearing incident.
No punches were thrown but the third baseman ended up with a non-displaceable fracture in his left hand, Orioles manager Craig Albernaz told reporters after the game. The Orioles captain described the injury as a “punch in the gut.”
Royals reliever Lukas Erceg fouled the ground out of the strike zone with a 1-2 pitch in the bottom of the seventh inning, striking out Alexander.
Alexander was visibly upset and turned to Erceg, and the Orioles staff quickly came out to prevent him from escalating the situation further.
The benches emptied for the Royals and Orioles, but tensions calmed soon after as both teams retreated to their dugouts.
After the match, Ercej told reporters that he did not hit Alexander intentionally.
“There’s no ill intent. That’s the game of baseball,” Erceg said. “I mean guys are going to get hit, and I think you should kind of understand the situation. I understand why he’s angry. Obviously you never want to get hit, especially in the hand. So sorry about that.”
The injury is a tough break for the Orioles as Alexander is batting .312 at the moment and Baltimore is on a four-game winning streak heading into the MLB All-Star break.
Neither club has fared particularly well this season, with both the Orioles and Royals sitting near the bottom of the standings in their respective divisions.
The Orioles are fourth in the AL East and 11.5 games behind the first-place Rays.
The Royals find themselves in the basement of the AL Central and 13 games behind the first-place White Sox.
Kansas City also is 21 games under .500 heading into the All-Star break.