The New York Yankees were in Kansas City to play the Royals on Tuesday night which is and of itself is a combustible situation because Jazz Chisholm and Maikel Garcia have trouble sharing the diamond without incident.
It started when the Yankees third baseman said the Royals had gotten lucky after a win in last fall's American League Division Series and got even more heated when the Kansas City third baseman slid in hard a few games later on Anthony Volpe. A long winter and spring did little to usher in cooler heads and things once again went 1-100 on Tuesday night when Chisholm stole third and took exception to the tag from Garcia.
Jazz had a few things to say after that stolen base 🤣 pic.twitter.com/tcONzFo6pI
— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) June 11, 2025
3rd did nothing wrong. Go @Yankees though https://t.co/CPYV8ZLE4N
— 💫🦍 (@kevinjackson0) June 11, 2025
“I'm gonna tell you one more time… if he tags me like that one more time, Imma smack the f--- outta him,” Chisholm appeared to say.
Chisholm left the game shortly after this with neck tightness so he could not follow through on what looks to be a pretty aggressive threat. Yankees fans could probably tell you what's so egregious about this tag but most others would say it looks like Garcia was just trying to catch the ball as his arm drifted down to the sliding player all in one motion.
"I just feel like every time we have a problem, it’s always been him [Garcia],” Chisholm said after the Yankees' victory. “That’s the only reason I was so frustrated. And then to even see that he didn’t even have the ball for the way that he tagged me, it was just, I didn’t like it. You know what I mean? So, just frustrated, you know. That’s it."
Garcia countered by saying he was just trying to do his job, which is tag someone out. He also did not publicly present as someone who is afraid of Chisholm making good on his vow to retaliate.
"I’m waiting for it,” said Garcia, who didn’t hear the comments at the time but was made aware of them postgame. “It’s just talk.”
The Royals and Yankees have two games remaining in their series, so there's plenty of time for these two to get into it again.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Jazz Chisholm Has Strong Words for Royals Third Baseman After Questionable Tag.
