Yankees continue war with umpires during latest win over Indians

NEW YORK – Again, again and again, the New York Yankees kept hammering away.

At the umpires — and the Cleveland Indians, too.

Manager Aaron Boone, Brett Gardner and the Yankees threw another severe temper tantrum Saturday, this time in prolonged rants that brought several members of the team spilling onto the field in a 6-5 win over the Indians.

“Kinda crazy, to be honest,” Gardner said.

Gleyber Torres hit two home runs and Didi Gregorius and DJ LeMahieu also connected for the AL East-leading Yankees.

But what really fired up the crowd of 47,347 at Yankee Stadium erupted in the sixth inning after Cameron Maybin was called out on strikes by Triple-A ump Ben May.

“Mayhem, I guess,” observed Cleveland catcher Kevin Plawecki.

For the third time in a month — each occurring with a minor league call-up umpire behind the plate — the team with the best record in American League lost its cool in a big way. This episode led to Boone, Gardner and pitcher CC Sabathia being ejected.

It also prompted Boone to accuse the umpires of picking on the Yankees.

“Frankly, I think it escalated because they came looking for it,” he said. “Think they were looking for us. It felt like a little bit.”

Said umpire crew chief Tom Hallion: “There was an ejection of Boone and things then kind of got out of control.”

The pitch to Maybin was, according to strike zone charts, a bit outside. He calmly stood and discussed it with May and went back to the bench.

“It should’ve been over. But he continued to stare into the dugout,” Maybin said.

Moments later, things heated up in a hurry.

Boone came rushing from the dugout to confront May, and engaged in an animated, extended argument. May listened, and Boone returned to the Yankees dugout.

“I think that it was handled in a professional way,” Hallion told a pool reporter.

All seemed calm, in fact. For a moment, anyway.

That’s when Boone rushed out for another go at May, with Hallion coming in from second base, trying to quell the beef.

“We objected to a few calls,” Boone said, “had some issues.”

“In the heat of battle you get a little passionate,” he said, adding, “obviously, don’t like that.”

But it was far from over.

With the fans screaming, and security personnel coming onto the field, several Yankees were hollering from the dugout, engaging in a close-up argument with first base ump Phil Cuzzi.

Gardner was ejected after banging his bat against the dugout roof — it’s become his habit lately — and then he climbed over the railing to continue the dispute with Cuzzi. Coaches Phil Nevin, Marcus Thames and Josh Paul also were on the field, holding back Gardner, who was also arguing with third base umpire Todd Tichenor.

Gardner said he was merely trying to rev up his teammates and didn’t think he deserved to be thrown out.

“Felt like I had a target on my back,” the intense outfielder said.

Gardner said nobody from MLB has told him he can’t bang his bat that way. There is no specific prohibition on that — the official baseball rule reads: “Each umpire has authority to disqualify any player, coach, manager or substitute for objecting to decisions or for unsportsmanlike conduct or language.”

“I’m not saying what I did was right,” Gardner said. “But I probably won’t do it tomorrow.”

Last Friday, Gardner was tossed after a rant in Toronto. And on July 18, Boone screamed and hollered at a rookie umpire, leading to the expletive-filled rant where the manager called his hitters “savages” in the batter’s box.

Source : Baseball – The Japan Times