New York Yankees third baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. didn’t hold back when talking about the Kansas City Royals’ Maikel Garcia’s slide into second base during the Yankees’ 3-1 series-clinching win Thursday.
After Garcia led off the sixth inning with a single, the Royals’ Michael Massey hit a chopper to first base. Yankees first baseman Jon Berti stepped on the bag and fired to shortstop Anthony Volpe, who tagged Garcia out at second base for the double play.
Garcia slid hard into second base, and Volpe tagged Garcia with some force. Volpe hit Garcia around the neck with his right forearm during the slide.
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Garcia and Volpe got up and looked at each other for a moment. Then, as Garcia was slowly walking off the field, he turned to Chisholm and started talking to the Yankees third baseman.
Once that happened, chaos ensued as the teams poured out of their dugouts and the bullpens raced in from the outfield. Chisholm was held back by several people from the Yankees’ dugout.
After a few tense moments, order was quickly restored, and the game resumed. Chisholm was upset because he felt Garcia was trying to injure Volpe on the slide.
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“I just felt like he tried to go in and injure Volpe because he was being a sore loser. You know what I mean? He was talking a ton on Instagram and Twitter and stuff. I do the same thing, but I’m not going to injure somebody if they’re winning a game. I didn’t like that. I told him we don’t do that on this side, and I’m going to stick up for my guys,” Chisholm said.
Even prior to the benches clearing, Chisholm was being vociferously booed by Royals fans because he said the Royals were “lucky” to win Game 2. During the Yankees’ postgame celebration, Chisholm’s teammates jokingly booed him.
Gerrit Cole was on the mound when the benches cleared and had to be held back during the altercation.
“I was holding my emotions in all night,” Cole admitted, “and let them out on the way to the dugout.”
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Cole threw seven innings of one-run ball. Yankees manager Aaron Boone wasn’t even sure what happened at second base that led to the benches clearing.
“I have no idea (what happened). Honestly,” Boone said. “It was like we were out there, and then it was right back into we’re at the end of a playoff game. So, I haven’t even let the dust settle and talk to the guys involved.
“Yeah, it was like if there was some kind of upset over the slide or whatever. We just go back and show a little Hal McRae and Willie Randolph, and we’ll all laugh at ourselves,” Boone jokingly added, referring to the days of an intense Royals-Yankees rivalry.
Royals’ manager Matt Quatraro was matter of fact about what happened.
“Volpe had the ball, blocked the bag. Maikel probably didn’t care for that too much, and it got a little chippy,” Quatraro said.
The Yankees now await their opponent for Monday’s Game 1 of the American League Championship Series.
The Cleveland Guardians and Detroit Tigers play a winner-take-all Game 5 Saturday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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