BALTIMORE—Orioles first baseman Chris Davis said he was sorry about the dispute he had with manager Brandon Hyde in the team’s dugout on Wednesday night.
Davis’ argument with Hyde, parts of which were caught on camera, resulted in him being removed from the game in the bottom of the fifth inning and leaving the ballpark before the end of the game.
He said he became frustrated when he missed fielding an errant throw by second baseman Jonathan Villar on Aaron Judge’s groundball to start the fifth inning. The Yankees’ Gio Urshela followed with a home run in a game the Orioles lost, 14-2
“For me, that was kind of the breaking point,” Davis said. “I think it’s quite obvious the offensive struggles that I’ve had for quite some time. I feel like night in and night out, I’ve still done a good job of being there on defense.
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“I try to pick guys up, but at that spot at the game, at that point in the series … I hit a breaking point. It’s going to happen when you have that much frustration, when you’re constantly having to deal with failure, you’re going to have episodes where you let down and, unfortunately, it was in the dugout. I wish it didn’t happen then. I wish it happened underneath, but it happened and I can’t go back and change that.”
Davis and Hyde spoke on Friday for about an hour and Davis believes that their relationship, which Hyde continued to refer to in positive terms, remains strong.
With more than three years remaining on his seven-year, $161 million contract, Davis continues to struggle at the plate. He’s batting .182 with nine home runs and 31 RBIs.
“It all boiled over,” Davis said. “And it wasn’t just from that play. For me, it’s been the past couple of weeks.”
Davis feels bad that the incident was captured on television.
“I wish it hadn’t happened in the dugout, but it did,” Davis said. “We made amends. We talked about what happened. We talked about what we want to do going forward.”
Throughout his woes at the plate, which included an 0-for-33 start to the season, Hyde remained publicly supportive.
“It’s been awesome,” Davis said. “One of the reasons we were able to move on from this is where we were.”
Davis wanted to clear up one impression that he said isn’t true.
“Probably one of the things that I’ve heard the most that just isn’t true is that I don’t care, that I don’t show enough emotion, that maybe I don’t care because I’m not blowing up every other at-bat,” Davis said.
“I’m one of the older guys on the team. I understand that. An example is set, and I didn’t do a very good job at that the other night.”
Davis is not in the lineup for Friday night’s game because the Orioles are facing Houston left-hander Wade Miley.
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