This new Yankees-Rays rivalry just awaits next flare-up
Third base umpire Jansen Visconti, center, restrains Yankees relief pitcher Aroldis Chapman, right, after the Rays and Yankees traded words following the Yankees' 5-3 victory on Tuesday at Yankee Stadium. Credit: AP/Kathy Willens
Cooler heads prevailed the day after Aroldis Chapman’s 101-mph fastball nearly put a hole through the helmet of Rays’ infielder Mike Brosseau.
Part of that was due to the suspensions handed down to the principal offenders: three games for Chapman and one for Rays manager Kevin Cash, whose not-so-veiled threat involving his own stable of 98-mph throwers did not sit well with the commissioner’s office.
As for Yankees’ manager Aaron Boone, he sort of got caught in the crossfire. MLB tagged him with the same one-game penalty as Cash. The official reason? “Chapman’s actions,” is how the release described it.
Seemed unfair. But after what transpired later Wednesday during yet another Yankees’ loss to the Braves, this time by the score of 5-2, Boone was better off as a spectator. It only took two-thirds of an inning for Yankees’ starter Jordan Montgomery to join him on the sidelines — the Rays jumped him for a pair of two-run homers — and they even got burned by more fallout from Tuesday’s fracas.
Bench coach Carlos Mendoza, filling in for Boone, said that the two teams were not given pregame warnings by the umpiring crew. But that didn’t stop reliever Ben Heller from getting ejected in the fifth inning for nailing Hunter Renfroe — on just his third pitch of the night.
Heller plunked Renfroe on the front leg with a 94-mph fastball, then spun around in frustration. The umpires, wary of more flare-ups, huddled briefly before crew chief Chad Fairchild tossed Heller.
“Obviously we knew the circumstances we were playing under tonight,” Mendoza said. “But we’re not trying to hit anybody, especially in that situation, when your starter comes out of the game in the first inning.”
Common sense should have trumped the umpires’ misplaced abundance of caution. But with so much bad blood involving these two teams, and a recent history of revenge-drillings on both sides, the umpires clearly got caught up in the hysteria.
The Rays didn’t show much interest in the extra-curricular stuff, however. After a team meeting designed to put Tuesday’s rage behind them, Brosseau cleared his head by swatting a pair of home runs as Tampa Bay finished 8-2 against the Yankees for the regular season.
“They’ve had our number,” Brett Gardner said. “And to this point, we haven’t been able to figure them out, so the hope is we’ll see those guys again in October.”
The Yankees should be careful what they wish for. And if you listened closely before Wednesday night’s game, there were a few embers still glowing from the previous night’s heated exchange. The one we liked in particular was Boone’s next-day response to Cash accusing the Yankees of “poor coaching” and “poor teaching” right after the flare-up.
Boone tiptoed around the incident late Tuesday. But when I asked him Wednesday if he took offense to those pointed comments from Cash — which clearly called him out — his wry smile suggested those words weren’t forgotten.
“Not at all,” Boone said with a grin. “I’m going to take offense to someone popping off in the heat of the moment? No chance. And tonight will give me time to reflect on that a little bit and maybe tighten up my coaching techniques.”
Neither manager publicly expressed any desire to clear the air with the other. Boone further labeled Cash’s Tuesday rant as “reckless” and “inflammatory” while Cash wouldn’t go as far as to apologize for the language he used. Cash’s only goal was to defend his own clubhouse, and for anyone else who got sprayed with the shrapnel, that’s not his problem — especially if they happen to be wearing pinstripes.
Pandemic or not, the Yankees and Rays are never going to be sharing bro-hugs or handshakes, regardless of how often they’re getting suspended. Whenever these players get smoked, there always seems to be a purpose.
Cash repeatedly has said the Rays’ strategy is to pitch up-and-in to the Yankees. He reiterated that Wednesday. And so the Yankees will continue to do the same. Much like two cold-war adversaries always sizing each other up, until things are set ablaze.
Chapman realizes how dangerous it was to throw a 101-mph pitch that Brosseau barely ducked in time. But he didn’t make any apologetic gestures Tuesday and still declined to do so after getting the three-game suspension (which he’s appealing). Everyone knows how erratic his fastball command is, right?
“I understand if you take a look at the pitch, and the velocity of the pitch, and how close the pitch was — yeah, it looks bad,” Chapman said through his interpreter. “ It's obvious, you know? But I can tell you right now that I have no intention of hitting anybody.”
The Rays hit everything that was thrown at them Wednesday night, early and often. For the Yankees, there was no worse punishment.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
