Torii Hunter tells Bud Norris ‘I will whoop your ass’ (GIF)

Things got a little bit tense between the Tigers and Orioles Monday night. Baltimore’s Bud Norris drilled Detroit’s Torii Hunter in the ribs the at bat after an Ian Kinsler home run. The benches cleared. Norris was ejected.

Things calmed down, then escalated again after Hunter started yelling at Norris. Lip readers had no problem figuring out what exactly Hunter shouted at Norris.

Note the umpire giving Torii a little tap on the cheek there. Torii didn’t appreciate that either. I can’t blame him. That’s a “calm down son” tap if I ever saw one.

Torii Hunter probably doesn’t appreciate the patriarchal implications of that tap.

Hunter indicated after the game that he suspects Norris threw at him on purpose, possibly on orders from the pitching coach who made a mound visit right before the drilling.

“I’ve been around a long time,” Hunter said per mlive.com. “Whenever you see a pitching coach come out there and the guy just hit a home run — maybe to calm him down, maybe he shouldn’t have been in the game — but to get hit with 94 in the ribs right after that, even if he didn’t try to do it, it still looks fishy, suspicious. I don’t know if he did it on purpose or not. I thought he pitched a tremendous game and that happened.”

This will be one to file away in the old memory bank for later. Could be retaliation down the line. Some Orioles hitter could be in line for a fastball to the ribcage.

How they roll in baseball.

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