When a team has their backs against the wall, things can get a little testy out there as emotions run high and cooler heads don’t always prevail.
Fortunately for the Yankees in their ALDS clinching win on Thursday night in Kansas City, when that moment of desperation from the Royals arrived and the benches and bullpens emptied onto the field for a meeting of the minds, the tension never spilled past a simmer.
With the Yanks ahead 3-0 and Gerrit Cole seemingly in cruise control in the bottom of the sixth inning, Maikel Garcia notched the home side’s third hit of the night to lead off the frame. The unflappable Yanks ace got Michael Massey to hit a grounder to first where Jon Berti – making his second career start at the position – deftly snared the bouncer, touched the bag and fired to Anthony Volpe at second base.
After the ball reached the Yankee shortstop for a tag play with Garcia, barreling down, but still a handful of feet from the bag, is where the interpretations of events begin to differ.
“Volpe had the ball, blocked the bag, Maikel probably didn’t care for that too much and then it got a little chippy,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said after the game.
“I don’t know,” Yanks manager Aaron Boone said. “I’m still not even sure who… I have no idea, honestly.”
What did occur: Garcia’s feet-first slide was close to the bag, Volpe’s tag with his glove hand and right hand extended made contact with the runner’s upper body – the right elbow of the shortstop connected with the chin of the slider – and the out was recorded for a 1-6 double-play.
“If there was some kinda upset over the slide or whatever,” the victorious Boone said. “We could just go back and show a little Hal McRae – Willie Randolph and we’ll all laugh at ourselves.”
After both players got to their feet, Volpe tapped Garcia on his chest with his glove. Garcia looked at Volpe, but didn’t appear to say anything. And as the Royals’ man headed back toward the dugout, Volpe gave him a few extra taps with his right hand on the back.
Then, Garcia turned toward Yankees third baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. – a new villain in Kansas City – who had walked toward the base and must have given his two cents on the play. A conversation ensued that quickly got the attention of second base umpire Roberto Ortiz, who extended his left hand toward Chisholm and had his right around the midriff of Garcia.
“I just felt like he tried to go and injure Volpe because he was being a sore loser,” Chisholm said after the game, via Bryan Hoch. “He was talking a lot on Instagram and Twitter and stuff. I do the same thing, but I’m not gonna go and try and injure somebody if they’re winning a game.
“And I didn’t like that so I told him we don’t do that on this side and I’m always gonna stick up for my guys.”
With Volpe and the Yankees infield waving Garcia back to the first base dugout and second baseman Gleyber Torres’ arm around the Royals third baseman escorting him off the field in a gentlemanly fashion, other Yankees fielders ambled toward the fracas. And that is when the benches emptied and the bullpens cleared.
There was no incident when both teams congregated between first and second with the majority of players trying to calm things down.
Chisholm appeared to be the most agitated of anybody but assistant pitching coach Desi Druschel walked the third baseman away from the sea of humanity, which soon dissipated.
Of course, Kansas City managed to follow up the twin-killing with back-to-back hits, the second of which was Vinnie Pasquantino’s RBI double to the left-center gap that scored their only run of the game.
But, in the end, the skirmish was much like the Royals’ offense in Game 4: punchless.
