Guardians announcer takes unprovoked shot at Javy Baez after HBP

Javier Báez has only been back in the majors after his IL stint for two days, and he's already ready to set off a few fireworks. On Tuesday, during the Tigers' second game against the Guardians, the score was even at seven runs apiece by the bottom of the sixth. Detroit's hitters managed to work their way back into contention after another terrible start from Kenta Maeda, who gave up six runs in 2 2/3 innings, but Colt Keith, Wenceel Pérez, Gio Urshela, and Justyn-Henry Malloy all worked overtime to tie things up.

Báez was hitless through two at-bats, and he came up in his third only to get hit in the hip by a slider that got away from Guards reliever Nick Sandlin, whose control hadn't been great anyway and who'd just given up the homer to Malloy.

Instead of taking his base without incident, Báez took a few steps toward the mound while chirping at Sandlin, before being diverted by catcher Austin Hedges and the home plate umpire. He eventually went to first while still staring at Sandlin, but Guardians color commentator Matt Underwood didn't let him go without taking a shot: "Look Javy, you're hitting way under .200. No one's hitting you on purpose."

Guardians announcer roasts Javy Báez for taking exception to a hit by pitch in Tuesday's game against the Tigers

It was never going to take long for Báez to start getting roasted and meme'd to high heaven after his return from the IL (which we hoped was actually going to last a lot longer than it did), so Underwood's comment is both somewhat par for the course and another reason for Tigers fans to want to crawl into a hole when they think about Báez and his Tigers contract.

Sandlin got it together and induced a fly out from Zach McKinstry to end the inning, and Báez got one more turn at the plate in the ninth, which ended in a pop out. Cleveland went up by two in the top of the 10th to break the tie, and despite a sac fly from Carson Kelly in the bottom of the inning to get the Tigers closer to a win or prolonging the game, Emmanuel Clase shut it down to end the game.

All told, Báez is hitting .182 with a .462 OPS after going hitless on Tuesday. While we could be mad at Underwood for taking a needless shot at Báez and rubbing that into Tigers fans' wounds, there's also not much to argue with there.