Fired-up Yanks edge Indians
NEW YORK — Manager Aaron Boone, Brett Gardner and the Yankees again hammered away at the umpires, this time in prolonged rants that brought several members of the team onto the field, while beating the Indians 6-5 on Saturday.
Gleyber Torres hit two homers and Didi Gregorius and DJ LeMahieu also connected for the AL East-leading Yankees.
But what really fired up the home crowd occurred in the sixth 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 ump behind the plate — the Yankees lost their temper. This episode led to Boone, Gardner and 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.
Things heated up. Boone came rushing from the dugout to confront May, and engaged in an animated argument.
Boone returned to the bench but came back for another go at May, with crew chief Tom Hallion coming in from second, trying to quell the beef. At the same time, several Yankees were hollering from the dugout, engaging in a close-up argument with first base ump Phil Cuzzi.
Gardner was ejected after banging his bat against the dugout roof 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.