Yankees’ Jazz Chisholm Accuses Maikel GarcÃa of Trying ‘to injure’ Anthony Volpe

Tensions boiled over in the sixth inning of Game 4 of the ALDS on Thursday as the New York Yankees punched their ticket to the ALCS, navigating a brief benches-clearing incident sparked by a hard slide and an aggressive tag.

Kansas City Royals’ Maikel García opened the sixth inning with a single, followed by a chopper to first from Michael Massey. Jon Berti fielded the ball, stepped on the bag, and fired to Anthony Volpe at second to complete the double play. García slid hard into the base, swiping at Volpe’s glove, and Volpe responded by throwing his right forearm into García along with the tag. Tempers flared immediately, and both benches emptied as players flooded the field.

Benches cleared after Anthony Volpe and Maikel Garcia got into it pic.twitter.com/eCJCaMv9JF

— Talkin’ Yanks (@TalkinYanks) October 11, 2024As García headed back to the dugout, he exchanged words with Volpe, prompting several Yankees teammates to step in and defend their shortstop. Gleyber Torres tried to guide García away, while Jazz Chisholm Jr. joined the exchange. The situation quickly de-escalated, with no punches thrown and no ejections.

After the game, Chisholm offered his take on the incident.

“I just felt like he tried to go in and injure Volpe because he was being a sore loser. You know what I mean?” Chisholm told MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch. “He was talking a lot on Instagram and Twitter and stuff. I do the same thing, but I’m not going to injure somebody if they’re winning a game. I didn’t like that. I told him we don’t do that on this side, and I’m going to stick up for my guys.”

Following the Royals’ win in Game 2 at Yankee Stadium on Monday, García took to Twitter/X to mock Yankees’ left-hander Carlos Rodón for celebrating “too early” after striking out the side in the first inning.

Don’t celebrate too early💀 https://t.co/T4GyFapOFO

— Maikel Garcia (@maikeljose06) October 8, 2024As Chisholm pointed out, he did his share of trolling on social media as well, retweeting a post that called the Royals “luck merchants” after Monday’s game. He had expressed a similar sentiment earlier in his postgame interview following the Yankees’ Game 2 loss, and the Kansas City crowd reminded him of it during every at-bat, showering him with boos. Although Chisholm remained quiet at the plate throughout the series, the Yankees backed up their talk, winning both road games to advance to the ALCS.

The Yankees now await the outcome of the Detroit Tigers-Cleveland Guardians series. On Monday night, they will host the victor of Saturday’s decisive Game 5. Detroit will send AL Cy Young Award favorite and Triple Crown winner Tarik Skubal to the mound, likely taking him out of the equation for Game 1 if the Tigers advance.