BALTIMORE — After everyone involved calmed down, The bench-clearing incident at Camden Yards late Friday nightAaron Boone spoke with Orioles manager Brandon Hyde.
Boone said the conversation “went well” and that was all he would say when speaking with reporters Saturday afternoon.
But it remains to be seen whether the bad feelings that were on full display on Friday night and have seemed to be simmering under the surface so far this season will spill over into the rest of the weekend.
In the bottom of the ninth, Clay Holmes’ 0-2 sinker hit Heston Kjellstad over the head, but it was clearly unintentional, as the rain began to get heavier and the Yankees slipped away from the win with two outs. Win 4-1.
Friday night. Getty Images
The Orioles didn’t seem to object to that idea, and the Yankees didn’t seem too bothered when Hyde stood up for Kjellstad and charged toward the Yankees dugout (he said he was just riling up against the coaching staff), resulting in an empty bench and a violent shoving match.
But there was also a sense, at least on the Yankees’ side, that too much was at stake in this series to allow themselves to be swept away by weekend tensions.
With Friday night’s win, the Yankees again pulled within one game of the Orioles for the AL East lead.
“We’re aiming too big to get caught up in that,” Boone said. “We’ve got to play well and win games, and so do they.”
The most immediate impact of Friday’s confusion was that Kjeldas was removed from the Orioles’ lineup on Saturday and then placed on the seven-day concussion list minutes before his first appearance on the mound.
The rookie left fielder was initially in the starting lineup but wasn’t at 100 percent even after pregame practice.
The longer-term impact is that after this weekend, the Yankees and Orioles will play just one more series this year, which will take place in the final week of the regular season in the Bronx and potentially determine the AL East standings.
“These are the top two teams in the division,” Holmes said. “I think there’s going to be a very competitive atmosphere. We know these games mean something and we’re here to compete. When you have two teams going at it like this, you’re going to feel the atmosphere, you’re going to feel the competitive energy and I think that’s going to be the case in this series.”
Before Saturday, Yankees pitchers had allowed 10 hits against the Orioles this season.
The Orioles pitchers only allowed three hits against the Yankees, but there was frustration in the Yankees clubhouse last month during the series as the Orioles repeatedly threw high and tight (including Aaron Judge and Gleyber Torres both getting hit in the hands).
“Pitching in is part of the game,” Hyde told reporters on Saturday. “I’m not really concerned right now about whether they’ve put up more hits than us. We want to win, and we’ve won a lot.”
Hyde escalated the incident on Friday, first yelling at Holmes and then storming into the Yankees dugout.
“I got emotional,” Hyde said the next day. “My friend got hit in the head and I may have reacted and said some things at the time.”
Gerrit Cole, whose best start of the season on Friday was overshadowed by a late brawl, described the tension between the teams as “just good, intense baseball.”
“The intensity level has been at that level pretty much all year,” Cole said, “so we expect it to continue to be steady.”
Both the Yankees and Orioles have struggled since opening Friday games, with the Yankees losing 18 of their last 25 games and the Orioles losing 12 of their last 20 games after being swept by the Cubs.
It remains to be seen how much momentum will be gained from what happened in the bottom of the ninth inning on Friday night.
“When the benches clear, we all stick together,” Judge said, “but that’s baseball. There’s going to be tough times, there’s going to be good times and bad times, there’s going to be times when the benches are clear, but we’ve got to stick together as guys in this room and stay focused on what we can do to go out there and keep playing.”
