KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The mutual dislike between New York Yankees third baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Kansas City Royals third baseman Maikel Garcia continued Tuesday night, with Chisholm leaving the first game of the series between the teams with a sore neck after an attempted tag from Garcia.
On an attempted steal of third base during New York’s 10-2 victory, Garcia tried to apply a tag to Chisholm and knocked his helmet askew in the process. The throw from catcher Freddy Fermin caromed off Garcia’s glove. Chisholm popped up to one knee and was shown on the television broadcast saying to Yankees third base coach Luis Rojas: “I’m going to tell you one more time — if he tags me like that one more time, I’m going to smack the f— out of him.”
When asked after the game for his response to Chisholm’s comments, Garcia said, “I’m waiting for it,” and added, “It’s just talk.”
The beef between Chisholm and Garcia started last October, when Chisholm drew the ire of Kansas City fans by saying the Royals “got lucky” in their Game 2 American League Division Series win. Following the Yankees’ series-clinching Game 4 victory, Chisholm accused Garcia of trying to injure New York shortstop Anthony Volpe on a hard slide into second base, calling Garcia a “sore loser.”
The crowd of 30,017 at Kauffman Stadium on Tuesday showered Chisholm with boos in each of his at-bats, though he later admitted to appreciating the welcome.
“I went up to home plate today and told Fermin, ‘I kind of like it,'” Chisholm said. “I’m not at home, so I would rather walk up to something instead of walking up to no noise at all. I feel like on the road when road hitters come up and there’s nothing going on, I feel like it’s just, like, bland. Go ahead and boo me. You’ve giving me some music to at least walk up to.”
The music turned louder in the sixth inning, when Chisholm doubled and went for third. In addition to the neck injury, Chisholm suffered a cut on his right thumb. Despite the two injuries, Chisholm said, he expects to play tomorrow. For two more games, he’ll face a Royals team that in the clubhouse after the game was watching video of his comments following the tag.
“I was just trying to do my job, tag him,” Garcia said. “I missed the ball.”
Chisholm said he believed there was malice behind the tag and suggested it went back to last October.
“I just feel like every time we have a problem, it’s always been him,” Chisholm said. “I mean, that’s the only reason I was so frustrated. And then to even see that he didn’t even have the ball for the way that he tagged me. I didn’t like it.”