BALTIMORE -- Rick Porcello and Ian Kinsler did what they needed to do to give the Detroit Tigers a victory. Bud Norris and Torii Hunter provided the fireworks.

Porcello picked up his sixth victory, Kinsler hit a two-run home run and Norris was ejected after hitting Hunter with a pitch Monday night in a 4-1 victory for the Detroit Tigers over the Baltimore Orioles.

Detroit Tigers outfielder yells toward the Baltimore Orioles dugout Monday night as umpire Paul Neuert pats him in the face.

The Tigers had just extended their lead to 4-1 on the home run by Kinsler with two outs in the eighth inning when Hunter stepped in. Norris was visited by the pitching coach on the mound and hit Hunter in the ribs with the second pitch after the Kinsler home run.

Hunter veered onto the grass and exchanged words with Norris, who was immediately ejected from the game. The benches and bullpens cleared, then the bullpens cleared again when the incident sparked with Hunter yelling at Norris while Norris was in the dugout.

"I don't know if he was trying to hit him or not," Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said, "but it looked odd when after a home run, coach goes out and all of a sudden a guy gets drilled. I'm not saying he hit him on purpose, but it didn't look copacetic."

Hunter didn't think it was copacetic either. He didn't go into detail about the words that were exchanged, but he said some variation of, "I'm going to whoop your ass," more than once to Norris based on video replays.

"The game polices itself," Hunter said. "We've just got to keep playing the game, doing what we have to do and see what happens."

Crew chief Bob Davidson told a pool reporter that he believed there was intent and that home plate umpire James Hoye did the right thing by ejecting Norris.

"Kinsler hit a two-run homer and then the next hitter gets drilled," Davidson said. "I thought Hoye handled it properly. I think that's what anybody would have done. It's a fastball that drilled the guy in the ribs, and I think Hoye did the right thing. That's pretty much what it was."

Baltimore Orioles starting pitcher Bud Norris yells at Detroit Tigers outfielder Torii Hunter after hitting him with a pitch Tuesday night.

Hoye gave a simple reason for not ejecting Hunter.

"Bud Norris instigates it at that point," he said. "Why would I throw Torii out?"

Hunter had plenty to say about the incident. Was there intent?

"I don't know," he said. "What do you think? I mean, the guy had control. I was actually thinking, 'He's got good stuff today. He's pitching pretty well," and, boy, he just all of a sudden lost it? Get in front of a pitching machine, I want all the people out there to get in front of a pitching machine, put it on 94 and just hold your ribs up and take one and see how that turns out for you."

Did Hoye eject Norris based on Hunter's reaction more than the pitch?

"I don't know what happened," Hunter said. "I wasn't trying to get him ejected or anything. I was just talking to him. We had a nice talk."

What sparked the second part of the incident?

"Before he got in the dugout, he looked back and he said something, staring at me and saying something," Hunter said. "I don't know. I'm too old for that, you know. He's picking on the old guy. Really? I probably have more hits than he has days in his life."

More on intent:

"I've been around a long time," Hunter said. "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."

On what Norris was thinking:

"I don't know anything with what was going on with him," Hunter said. "I just know I took the beat down. That's a punch and you can't punch back."

On the pitch hitting him:

"It was painful, especially when you think that it was on purpose," Hunter said. "If I didn't think that was on purpose, if Kinsler didn't hit a home run, I wouldn't even argue right there. I would just take the pain and walk to first."

On the fact that this is the third time this season Norris has jawed with a player:

"I heard bad things about him," Hunter said. "You can't go by what you hear. But after tonight, maybe so."

On third base umpire Paul Neuert patting him in the face during the incident:

"That's my buddy," Hunter said. "I've been knowing him too long. He was just trying to, 'Come on, T, come on, T.' He said, 'You're way better than that,' and he's right. I apologize to the fans for my reaction. Sometimes you just have a passion and things like that happen, it happens."

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