BALTIMORE -- There’s no place like home. And on Friday night Manny Machado was back home -- on the diamond at Camden Yards, helping the Baltimore Orioles win.
It was the first time Machado had played since serving a four-game suspension for charging the mound after being hit by a 99 mile-an-hour fastball from Royals hurler Yordano Ventura this month. It might as well have been four years.
"It felt like forever," said Machado, whose ban actually lasted five days because the Orioles had an off-day on Thursday.
As long as the layoff felt to Machado, judging by the crowd reaction at Camden Yards, it seemed just as long if not longer to the Orioles fans.