Matt Barnes suspended four games for throwing at Manny Machado’s head

Boston Red Sox reliever Matt Barnes received his suspension for throwing at Manny Machado’s head, but was it enough?

Discipline came quickly for Matt Barnes. Less than a day after he threw at the head of Baltimore Orioles third baseman Manny Machado in retaliation over a hard slide, Barnes was suspended by the league for four games. He will appeal the initial four-game ban.

Barnes went up and in on Machado in the eighth inning of Sunday afternoon’s game between the Red Sox and Orioles. On Friday night, Machado had slid hard into Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia, injuring his leg and forcing him out of the next two games. It was only a matter of time before someone on the Red Sox plunked Machado. Regardless of how against the idea Pedroia claimed to be, most baseball fans and the Orioles would have been fine with Machado catching a pitch in the back or lower half. The head, though, that’s out of bounds.

Major League Baseball will also look into the possibility of disciplining Sunday’s starter for the Red Sox. Eduardo Rodriguez threw down and in to Machado four times earlier in the game. It is unlikely Rodriguez meant to do more than establish the inner half of the plate against a right-handed batter.

The pitch that Barnes threw to Machado was unacceptable, and went far beyond what is expected when a retaliatory beanball is thrown. Judging by the way his catcher set up behind the plate, there is no way Barnes can hide behind the notion that the ball simply got away from him. If you believe that, go buy some oceanfront property in Iowa.

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A four-game suspension that can be argued down to three games is hardly enough of a deterrent to any other pitchers around the league who “let one slip” too close to an opponent’s head. The league needs to get serious when dealing with vigilante justice and the unwritten rules that make it acceptable for pitchers to throw a potentially deadly object at another man’s head whenever they feel like it. Matt Barnes will lose four games and a few thousand dollars, but Manny Machado could have lost so much more.