Whistle crisis
Benches clear after Lindor, Stanton jaw over alleged pitch signaling
The Yankees whistled while they worked, and the Subway Series turned testy as a result.
It came to a head during the seventh inning of Sunday’s 7-6 Mets win, when Giancarlo Stanton hit a game-tying, two-run home run and slowed down after he passed second base to exchange words with Francisco Lindor, leading to the benches clearing before Stanton even touched home.
Lindor had jabbered at the Yankees as he rounded the bases during his second home run of the night in the bottom of the sixth, delivering a whistling gesture towards their dugout and then appearing to do the same toward pitcher Wandy Peralta.
“Over the past couple days — I can’t accuse them of whistling for the signs because I’m not 100 percent [sure],” Lindor said. “But I know what I heard. I felt like there was something out of the ordinary going on. I heard what I heard. I’m not accusing them. I’m not saying I heard them doing it 100 percent, because I don’t know 100 percent. But it definitely felt that way and I took that personally.”
While the Mets believed the Yankees may have been whistling to identify pitches that Taijuan Walker was tipping on Saturday, according to ESPN, the Yankees pinned the whistling to Peralta.
“It’s just Wandy trying to liven up the dugout,” Yankees outfielder Joey Gallo said. “It’s definitely not for pitch-tipping or anything like that. It’s been hurting my ear honestly. It’s unbelievable how loud he can whistle.”
Stanton said he took issue with Lindor bringing others into it beyond Peralta.
“Just that if you got a problem with Wandy, give it to Wandy,” Stanton said. “Don’t be talking to multiple people, bringing everybody into it, especially running around the bases. [That] was my thought process. Obviously I didn’t get it all out running around.”
After both dugouts and bullpens cleared, players got face-to-face in a crowd around third base, but they left with only words and more gestures being exchanged.
Brett Gardner appeared to mock Lindor by flashing him two thumbs down — two weeks after Lindor and Javier Baez created a stir by using the gesture as a celebration to boo back at the fans.
“Boys will be boys,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “I’m just going to leave it at that.”
Lindor said he never intended to fight Stanton and chalked the whole thing up to a misinterpretation.
“I don’t think Stanton was telling me in a fighting manner,” Lindor said. “That’s not the way I do things. I’m not trying to fight nobody. I’m sure Stanton wasn’t trying to fight me either.”
Stanton and Boone both said the Yankees were not whistling to identify pitches.
“You can’t be doing something obvious like that,” Stanton said. “If he’s tipping, then you see the tip in the box and you pick it up that way. You can relay it or not for whoever wants it, but yeah.”