The bad blood between the Yankees and Rays has been building for years, and it intensified Tuesday night when Aroldis Chapman fired a 101 mph fastball behind Mike Brosseau’s head with two outs in the top of the ninth of the Yankees’ 5-3 win.
The pitch just missed Brosseau, and after the umpires warned both benches, Chapman struck out Brosseau to end the game, a much-needed victory for the Yankees.
That’s when the real drama started, as benches emptied and players had to be separated.
And it doesn’t seem to be over, as Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash ripped the Yankees after he was ejected from the game.
“It’s poor judgment, poor coaching, poor teaching. … I have a whole damn stable of pitchers that throw 98 miles per hour,’’ Cash said. “Period.”
When Cash’s quote was relayed to Aaron Boone, the Yankees manager was taken aback.
“That’s a pretty scary comment,’’ Boone said. “I don’t think that’s right at all, but I’m not gonna get into it right now.”
DJ LeMahieu, who homered twice in the win, did.
“The comments from their manager made the rounds pretty quick in our clubhouse,’’ LeMahieu said. “Obviously, that’s a pretty serious threat. But it is what it is. … It sounds like they’ll try to throw at us [Wednesday]. We’ll be ready.”
There will certainly be conversations before the teams meet again Wednesday — especially with the history between the clubs, with accusations of headhunting and purpose pitches from both sides for years.
Cash was also upset by Masahiro Tanaka hitting Joey Wendle with two outs in the first inning.
“It was clear as day,’’ the Tampa Bay manager said.
Chapman declined comment through a team spokesman after the game, but Britton defended his teammate.
“He’s working through some rust [from being out recovering from COVID-19],’’ Britton said. “He’s still not as sharp as he’s gonna be.”
“It’s definitely scary,” Brosseau said. “You never step in the box with a scared mentality. One hundred [mph] at your head is something that will wake you up for sure.”
It overshadowed a significant win for a Yankees team that had been in danger of losing eight of nine to the Rays this season — and falling into a tie for second place in the AL East with the Blue Jays. Instead, they’re back to 3 ¹/₂ games behind Tampa Bay.
Gio Urshela’s go-ahead double in the bottom of the sixth of a 2-2 game broke it open. It drove in two runs and he managed to somehow score on the play.
They also got a strong outing from Tanaka, who allowed two runs in six innings after being removed after just 66 pitches in his previous outing. He threw 85 Tuesday.
Tanaka made it through four innings without a hiccup, but he allowed a leadoff ground-rule double to left to Willy Adames in the fifth.
Kevin Kiermaier followed by sending a two-run homer into the second deck in right on an 0-2 pitch to tie the game at 2-2. They were the only runs given up by Tanaka.
The game remained tied in the top of the sixth in part due to a terrific diving catch by Clint Frazier in right-center on a Wendle liner for the second out.
With two on in the bottom of the inning, Urshela drilled a shot to center and the ball got by a diving Kiermaier. Voit and Frazier scored. The relay throw home from Adames sailed over catcher Michael Perez.
The ball went to the backstop and after initially hesitating, Urshela raced home. Thompson backed up the play and his toss back to Perez was in time to get Urshela, but Urshela used a nifty headfirst slide to get under Perez’s glove to score and give the Yankees a 5-2 lead.
Jonathan Loaisiga took over for Tanaka to start the seventh.
Loaisiga, pitching out of the bullpen with rookie Deivi Garcia almost assured another start in Friday’s doubleheader in Baltimore, gave up a one-out solo homer to Adames to cut the Yankees’ lead to 5-3.
“I’ve said it before, we don’t like them, they don’t like us,’’ Kiermaier said.
That didn’t change Tuesday.
