What led to Yankees-Royals’ benches-clearing melee: ‘Tried to injure’

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Jazz Chisholm Jr. put himself in the crosshairs of the ALDS by saying the Royals got “lucky” in their Game 2 win and insisting the Yankees would still win the series.

And when tempers flared in the sixth inning of the Yankees’ clinching Game 4 win over the Royals, Chisholm didn’t back down.

The benches cleared after Royals third baseman Maikel Garcia had a hard slide into second base and took an incidental forearm from Anthony Volpe while he was making the tag to finish off a double play.

As Garcia stood up and lingered at the bag, Volpe patted him on the back, but Chisholm came over and exchanged words with Garcia, which led to the dugouts and bullpens spilling onto the field.

“I just felt like [Garcia] tried to go injure Volpe because he was being a sore loser,” Chisholm said in the champagne-drenched Yankees clubhouse after a 3-1 win at Kauffman Stadium. “He was talking a lot on Instagram and Twitter and stuff. I do the same thing, but I’m not going to try to go 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. I’m always going to stick up for my guys.”

After the Royals’ Game 2 win, Garcia had retweeted a video of Carlos Rodon being pumped up after striking out the side in the first inning and commented, “Don’t celebrate too early.” He also posted, “We don’t fear nobody.”

Volpe did not seem to have an issue with Garcia’s slide, which was trying to beat a throw from Jon Berti, who had started the double play by fielding a grounder and stepping on first.

“The stakes are high,” Volpe said. “Everyone’s playing hard, everyone’s trying to win. They’re playing for their season. He went in hard, but we’re always going to stand up.

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“No. I’m going in hard to the base, he’s trying to make something happen because they didn’t have much going on. That’s what happens when everyone’s playing hard.”

During the skirmish, Gerrit Cole walked toward Garcia before catcher Austin Wells intercepted him and held him back.

“I’m not sure what happened, but I don’t like him coming after my shortstop,” Cole said. “I just wanted to get in front of him.”

Manager Aaron Boone said he did not know what everyone was mad about, but indicated it paled in comparison to the Yankees-Royals rivalry of old.

“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 said.