The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
Boone, Gardner hammer umps
NEW YORK (AP) >> Manager Aaron Boone, Brett Gardner and the New York Yankees again hammered away at the umpires, this time in prolonged rants that brought several members of the teamspilling onto the field, while beating the Cleveland Indians 6-5 Saturday.
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 occurred in the sixth inning after Cameron Maybin was called out on strikes by Triple-A ump Ben May.
For the third time in a month — each time with a minor league call-up umpire behind the plate — the team with the best record in American League lost its temper in a big way. This episode led to Boone, Gardner and pitcher CC Sabathia being ejected.
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.
Moments later, things heated up in a hurry.
Boone came rushing from the dugout to confront May, and engaged in an animated argument. When Boone returned to the bench, all seemed calm— for a moment, anyway.
That’s when Boone came back for another go at May, with crew chief Tom Hallion coming in from second base, trying to quell the beef. But at the same time, several Yankees were hollering from the dug
out, 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 when he gets upset — and then he climbed over the railing to continue to 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.
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 expletivefilled rant that prompted the manager to call his hitters “savages” in the batter’s box.
James Paxton (9- 6) went five innings for the win. Zach Plesac (6-4) was chased in the fifth.
Aroldis Chapman closed for his 35th save in 40 chances.
HI YA
YES broadcaster Michael Kay returned to the booth for the first time since July 2 after recovering from vocal cord surgery. The announcer who punctuates his home run calls with “See ya!” was shown on the videoboard in the third inning and got a nice cheer as the stadium sound system played the theme song from the TV show “Welcome Back, Kotter.”