Batters being hit by pitches has been the story of Baltimore Orioles and New York Yankees‘ matchups this season. It lead to Brandon Hyde getting ejected in their latest meeting.
In the bottom of the ninth inning, Heston Kjerstad was hit in the head by a 96.8 mph sinker from Clay Holmes.
Hyde immediately took the field in a bench clearing eruption between the teams.
Hyde talked with reporters after the game about the ejection.
“Just walking back, and I hear stuff from their dugout,” Hyde said on July 12. “So, just reacted the way I did. Saw that they were pointing at me, and the whole thing. Just reacted the way I did…I’m reacting to their coaches. I reacted the way I did. It’s an emotional time at that time, my just got hit right in the ear, I’m upset, and then I see their dugout. They’re waving at me and yelling at me. Just didn’t appreciate it at the time.”
Asked if the frustration was rooted in previous issues with the Yankees, Hyde said no.
“I didn’t feel any heat and fire up until that point,” Hyde continued. “We were getting beat, didn’t get much going offensively. Gerrit Cole threw the ball great, and their bullpen did also. We just had a tough time scoring runs.”
Baltimore is 57-37. They have a one-game lead over New York for the AL East lead.
Yankees Talk Controversy
After the win over the Orioles, a number of Yankees were asked about the ninth-inning incident. Aaron Judge, who hit New York’s lone home run in the 4-1 victory, was first.
“There’s been some balls back & forth hitting guys throughout the season, you know playing with the Orioles,” Judge said on the field postgame. “The tension kind of rose there in a situation where they’re down in the game, you know getting a little heated.”
He denied the idea that this would carry over into the series and/or the rest of the season. At least, for the Yankees.
“I don’t think so,” Judge continued. “This is a division rival. This is, big games coming up ahead. We’ve got bigger things to focus on than that kind of stuff. We’ve got games to win.”
New York skipper Aaron Boone chose to wish the best for Kjerstad, without getting into specifics of the chaotic moment.
“First of all, I hope Heston’s alright,” Boone said on July 12. “No one ever wants to see that, it’s scary in the moment. First and foremost, I hope he’s ok. Obviously, an emotional moment, two teams playing for a lot. So, glad it didn’t escalate too much.”
Holmes told reporters his sinker attempt just cut high on the pitch to Kjerstad.
“It was one of those things, where, it’s very unfortunate,” Holmes told reporters. “You’re never trying to hit someone in the head, up high like that. I hope Heston’s okay from that. Definitely hope he’s all good tomorrow. One of those things where conditions weren’t great, I was trying to throw a front-door sinker there and it just cut.”
Hyde on Cade Povich: ‘Threw the Ball Great’
Rookie lefty Cade Povich took the mound against the Yankees for his seventh career start.
The 24-year-old went 5.1 innings against the Bronx bats. He allowed 3 runs and 5 walks while throwing 6 strikeouts.
Hyde commended Povich after the game.
“I thought Cade threw the ball great. For only having a handful of starts under his belt, to be able to navigate through the lineups the way he did, you know he made that bad pitch to Aaron Judge there 0-2 unfortunately. But besides that, I thought he threw the ball really well.”
Povich was coming off of his worst major-league start, one where he was pulled in the second-inning against the Oakland Athletics. With his performance against New York, his ERA falls to 6.27 on the year.
Baltimore will need to dig in over the final two games of this series against the Yankees. Moments like their ninth inning bench clearing could be exactly what they needed to do so.
Hyde disagrees.
“That wasn’t the intention,” Hyde told reporters. “We’ve been playing really good baseball in this first half. I just want to see us end the half playing well. And we’ve run into a little bit of a skid right now, we’re kind of going through some tough times offensively.”
Grayson Rodriguez will take the mound in the second game of the series as the Orioles look to even it up one game apiece.
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