KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Yankees third baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. accused the Royals‘ Maikel Garcia of intentionally trying to hurt Anthony Volpe while sliding into second base during Game 4 of a tense AL Division Series that New York clinched 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 fielded the ball and stepped on the bag. He then fired to Volpe covering second for the double play, and Garcia slid hard into the base — and Volpe likewise delivered a hard tag on the Kansas City third baseman.
Tempers immediately flared and both teams flooded the field, though no punches were thrown 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 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 had already become the villain of the series when he said Kansas City was “lucky” to win Game 2 in New York. He was was reminded of the comment during every at-bat, getting a steady stream of boos from a crowd starved for postseason ball.
The Yankees jokingly booed him during a postgame celebration in the visiting clubhouse Thursday night, and looked ahead to a matchup with the Guardians or Tigers with Game 1 of the AL Championship Series scheduled for Monday night at Yankee Stadium.
The Yankees and Royals have come to loathe each other over the years, long before this playoff matchup. In fact, the angst can be traced to the 1970s, when players such as George Brett of the Royals and Graig Nettles of the Yankees would get into fist-fights during games that often decided who would be representing the American League in the World Series.
It looked a lot 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 jokingly.
The near fracas wasn’t funny to anyone at the time. Chisholm was chirping at the Royals while running into the middle of the scrum, and Yankees starter Gerrit Cole — who allowed a lone run over seven innings of precise pitching — had to be held back 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 resumed, 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 happened 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 happens in postseason baseball, especially when the Yankees and Royals are involved.