Yankees third baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. accused the Royals’ Maikel Garcia of purposely trying to harm Anthony Volpe while sliding into second base during Game 4 of a tight AL Division Series that New York secured with a 3-1 victory Thursday night.
Garcia had led off the sixth inning with a single and Michael Massey had followed with a chopper to first base, where Jon Berti caught the ball and stood on the bag. He next fired to Volpe covering second for the double play, and Garcia slid hard into the base — and Volpe equally delivered a hard tag on the Kansas City third baseman.
Tempers instantly boiled and both teams stormed the field, albeit no fists were exchanged and nobody was tossed.
“I just felt like he tried to go in and injure Volpe because he was being a sore loser. You know what I mean?” Chisholm said. “He was talking a ton on Instagram and Twitter and stuff. I do the same thing but I’m not going to damage anybody 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 had already become the villain of the series when he stated the Royals were “lucky” to win Game 2. He was immediately reminded of the comment during every at-bat, too, drawing a continuous stream of boos from a crowd desperate for postseason ball.
The Yankees sarcastically booed him during a postgame celebration in the visiting clubhouse Thursday night, as they looked ahead to a battle with the Guardians or Tigers with Game 1 of the AL Championship Series on Monday night at Yankee Stadium.
The Yankees and Royals have come to despise one other over the years, long before this playoff game. In fact, the anguish can be traced back to the 1970s, when players such as George Brett of the Royals and the Yankees’ Graig Nettles would get into all-out fist-fights during games that often decided who would be representing the American League in the World Series.
It looked a little like like those days when the benches emptied Thursday night.
“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,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said sarcastically.
The near-fracas wasn’t hilarious to anyone at the time. Chisholm was yelling at the Royals while sprinting into the heart of the crowd, and Yankees starter Gerrit Cole — who allowed a lone run over seven innings of precise pitching — had to be pulled back by many of his teammates as tensions ran high at Kauffman Stadium.
“I was holding my emotions in all night,” Cole said, “and let them out on the way to the dugout.”
It took Aaron Judge, among others, to keep the teams from coming to blows then they met near second base. And while order was restored and the game soon began, there was an underlying tension the rest of the way.
“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.”
When asked what transpired from his perspective, Royals manager Matt Quatraro was matter-of-fact: “Volpe had the ball, blocked the bag, Maikel probably didn’t care for that too much, and it got a little chippy.”
It occurs in postseason baseball, especially when the Yankees and Royals are involved.
