Buck Showalter hopes Orioles can return to normalcy after win

— -- After three days in which the Baltimore Orioles' focus understandably may have been anywhere but on the actual baseball game they were playing in, manager Buck Showalter welcomed Thursday night's 8-3 win over the Boston Red Sox.

"Seemed like we played a baseball game tonight instead of all the drama, so we're looking forward to getting back in that flow again," Showalter told reporters at Fenway Park.

On Tuesday, Jones was greeted warmly, with many Boston fans standing to show their support. The team apologized, as did the Boston mayor and Massachusetts governor, and Red Sox players came to Jones' defense.

The good feelings ended a batter later when Red Sox starter Chris Sale buzzed Manny Machado with a pitch behind his knees, and the Baltimore third baseman responded after the game with an expletive-filled tirade during which he said he'd lost respect for the Red Sox.

The bad blood between the teams stemmed from an April series in Baltimore, where Machado injured Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia on a hard slide. Boston reliever Matt Barnes threw behind Machado's head two days later and was suspended four games.

Tuesday's incident led to a call Wednesday afternoon with MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, MLB chief baseball officer Joe Torre, the two managers, Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski and Orioles general manager Dan Duquette. Red Sox manager John Farrell said Torre had told the teams to knock it off, but that there were no warnings about hit batters.

Baltimore's Kevin Gausman hit Xander Bogaerts with 76.6 mph curve ball and was immediately ejected from the game by plate umpire Sam Holbrook.

With Ubaldo Jimenez, Thursday's scheduled starter, pressed into a relief role on Wednesday, Baltimore called up Tyler Wilson from the minors. Wilson got the win in the series finale, thanks in part to Machado's three-run homer.

The blast was Machado's third homer of the series, and his home run trot drew boos from the crowd.

Asked if his trots against Boston are longer than when he homers against other teams, Machado said that isn't the case.

"Go look at my home runs," Machado said. "I'm not a rookie. I have 100-plus home runs in the show. I do the same trot every time. Wherever it is, I do the same thing every time."

Asked if he'd reconsidered his comments against Boston since Tuesday, Machado said his focus is solely on the Orioles.

"This is my team. I play for Baltimore," Machado said. "I bleed for this team. I'm going to die out there. I'm going to do whatever I have to do to keep this thing going."

On Thursday, Showalter was glad the only thing his team had to do was focus on winning a game.