KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — 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 the Royals were “lucky” to win Game 2. He was was reminded of the comment during every at-bat, too, 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, as they looked ahead to a matchup 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 loathe each other over the years, long before this playoff matchup. In fact, the angst 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 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 by several of his teammates as tensions ran high at Kauffman Stadium.
“I was holding my emotions in all night,” Cole admitted, “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.
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Kansas City Royals' Maikel Garcia, right, is tagged out at second by New York Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe on a double play during the sixth inning in Game 4 of an American League Division baseball playoff series Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024, in Kansas City, Mo. The Royals' Michael Massey was out at first. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Kansas City Royals' Maikel Garcia, right, stands up after being tagged out at second by New York Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe, left, on a double play during the sixth inning in Game 4 of an American League Division baseball playoff series Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024, in Kansas City, Mo. The Royals' Michael Massey was out at first. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Umpire Roberto Ortiz holds back Kansas City Royals' Maikel Garcia (11) after being tagged out by New York Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe as the benches empty after a double play during the sixth inning in Game 4 of an American League Division baseball playoff series Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Bobby Witt Jr., Vinnie Pasquantino and Salvador Perez carried the Royals back to the postseason for the first time in nearly a decade, a whirlwind turnaround from 106-loss club to a team playing for a spot in the American League Championship Series.
They fell just shy in large part due to that trio's collective struggles at the plate against the New York Yankees.
Witt, Pasquantino and Perez were a combined 6 for 49 in their AL Division Series, coming up short when the Royals desperately needed a big hit. That was especially evident in Game 4 on Thursday night, when Perez's popout ended their only real rally in the sixth inning, and Pasquantino and Perez struck out in the ninth as the Yankees finished off their 3-1 victory.
“It's tough. It's not really what you want,” Witt said. “It feels like you let a lot of people down when you do things like this, but that's part of the game. It's something that will light a torch in you, and leave a bad taste in your mouth for the future.”
New York will play Cleveland or Detroit in the ALCS beginning Monday night at Yankee Stadium.
“Yeah, I’ve got to be honest with you, the Royals are a damn good ballclub. That was a really tough series,” Yankees starter Gerrit Cole said. “In terms of Witt specifically, certainly had a little bit of bad luck, hit some balls on the screws and took some — it took a lot of good pitches to keep him in check. That’s just a testament to how great of a player he is."
Now, the Royals will begin thinking about next season, and what it will take to energize an offense that struggled mightily to score down the stretch. Kansas City lost 6-5 to the Yankees in Game 1, then scored five runs total over the next three games, a big reason why the Royals didn't win a home game after Sept. 8, losing nine straight including the playoffs.
“They battled their butts off, man. They gave everything they had,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro siad. “You’ve got to tip your cap; they beat us. But it wasn’t for lack of effort, wasn’t for lack of desire or any of that kind of stuff. They put it all out there.”
The sudden freeze by the Royals' best hitters was striking given what Witt, Pasquantino and Perez did during the season.
Witt hit .332 to win the AL batting title and had 32 homers to go with a team-best 109 RBIs. Perez hit 27 homers and had 104 RBIs. Pasquantino was on pace to give Kansas City three sluggers with 100 or more RBIs before breaking his thumb on a fluke play late in the season, an injury that healed enough in time to serve as the designated hitter in the playoffs.
Witt went 1 for 4 on Thursday night, his lone hit turning into the Royals' only run on Pasquantino's double in the sixth. But the biggest rival to the Yankees' Aaron Judge for AL MVP, Witt still finished just 2 for 17 at the plate in the series, after he had driven both of the decisive runs in the Royals' two-game sweep of Baltimore in the wild-card round.
“It's part of baseball,” Witt said. “Sometimes you hit right at ‘em, sometimes you don’t. It's just the game.”
Pasquantino's run-scoring double? That ended an 0-for-14 stretch over the first three games of the series.
Then there was Perez, whose clutch play in 2014 and '15 helped the Royals win back-to-back AL pennants and capture their first World Series title in three decades. Perez had three hits against New York coming into Thursday night, but he flied out leading off the second, popped out to end the fourth, and popped out again after the Royals finally scored in the sixth inning.
“You know, I tried to help my team win every day. You guys know that,” Perez said. “I missed a couple opportunities even today with Pasquantino at second base. That's going to happen. Good things are going to happen, bad things are going to happen.”
In the ninth, Pasquantino and Perez both struck out before Yuli Gurriel flied out against Yankees reliever Clay Holmes, who was part of a masterful New York bullpen that has not allowed a run over 15 2/3 innings of the postseason.
“They’ve got a lot of gamers over there, starting with their leader Salvy, a guy that’s won a World Series, been a World Series MVP, comes up clutch so many times for them," the Yankees' Aaron Judge said. "And then the young star for them — Bobby Witt — who had an incredible season and continues just to impress I feel like the baseball world every single day with what he can do.
“You go back to that first game where we had four, five, six lead changes back and forth. There’s just no fear in them and just a lot of fight," Judge added. "Definitely going to be a lot of battles with them for years to come.”
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB
Kansas City Royals' Salvador Perez watches from the dugout during the fifth inning in Game 4 of an American League Division baseball playoff series against the New York Yankees Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Kansas City Royals' Vinnie Pasquantino follows through on an BRI double during the sixth inning in Game 4 of an American League Division baseball playoff series against the New York Yankees Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
New York Yankees' Anthony Volpe (11) is out at second as Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. (7) is unable to turn the double play during the fifth inning in Game 4 of an American League Division baseball playoff series Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024, in Kansas City, Mo. The Yankees' Alex Verdugo was safe at first. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Kansas City Royals' Bobby Witt Jr. (7) is congratulated by teammate Salvador Perez (13) after scoring during the sixth inning in Game 4 of an American League Division baseball playoff series against the New York Yankees Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
