New York Yankees: Cool heads need to prevail on Wednesday

On Tuesday night, the New York Yankees and the Tampa Bay Rays almost got into a huge fight after closer Aroldis Chapman threw behind Mike Brosseau. Fortunately, it was just a shouting match but based on post-game comments from Rays manager Kevin Cash, things could get ugly on Wednesday, the series finale.

“It’s poor judgement, poor coaching, it’s just poor teaching what they’re doing and what they’re allowing to do,” Cash said, per MLB.com. “The chirping from the dugout. Somebody needs to tell me, go pull up the numbers, who has hit who more, but I can assure you that other than three years ago, there hasn’t been one pitch thrown with intent from any of our guys. Period. Somebody has to be held accountable. And the last thing I’ll say on it, is that I have a whole damn stable full of guys that throw 98 mph. Period.”

To that, Yankees’ infielder DJ LeMahieu, who homered two times last night, said: “The comments from their manager made the rounds pretty quick in our clubhouse. It sounds like, obviously that’s a pretty serious threat. But it is what it is. … It sounds like they’re going to try to throw at us tomorrow. We’ll be ready.”

The Yankees need to focus on winning

The Yankees should retaliate on the field, playing baseball, with good pitching, timely hitting, and making the routine plays to ensure that they will have the best chance of winning an important matchup with reclaiming the AL East’s first place in mind.

While it is important to stand up for the team when an on-field confrontation takes place, cooler heads will ultimately prevail. What does this mean? Well, For the New York Yankees, it doesn’t make much sense to lose an important pitcher to a long suspension following a hit by pitch that unleashes a fight in the diamond. It’s pointless for a position player to be caught throwing punches and be handed a long ban.

Remember, the season is only 60 games long. And we already surpassed the halfway point. Any four, five, or six-game suspension will put the Yankees in a bad place, having to replace important players with a roster full of injuries. For ballplayers in pinstripes, it’s just not the time to lose their minds and compromise the team as it fights for a chance to retake the lead in the division.