The Orioles and Yankees’ meetings this season have been packed with angst and drama, an understandable side effect of rivals gunning for the division crown. The disdain has bubbled over before. Friday night, it reached its apex.
Yankees closer Clay Holmes hit Orioles left fielder Heston Kjerstad in the head with a stray pitch as rain poured at Camden Yards. Both dugouts cleared. Baltimore manager Brandon Hyde was ejected. Moments later, the game ended with a 4-1 victory by New York to kick off an important series that has only intensified.
“It’s an emotional time,” Hyde said. “My guy just got hit right in the ear. I’m upset and then I see their dugout and they’re waving at me and yelling at me, so I just didn’t appreciate it at the time.”
Holmes said he tried to throw a high sinker that cut too far inside: “The movement wasn’t my normal sinker. Just kinda pulled it,” the All-Star right-hander said. Orioles outfielder Austin Hays added that he doesn’t think Holmes intentionally hit Kjerstad.
Still, the accident stirred animosity that has been boiling for months.
Finger pointing ensued. Hyde said he heard taunting from the Yankees dugout that sparked his tirade. Yankees players said it was Hyde who started the altercation. No matter who hurled the first insult or taunt, it allowed a feud that had been kept mostly peaceful to overflow.
Benches clear between the Yankees and Orioles in Baltimore. pic.twitter.com/gtEdYC2YGD
— MLB (@MLB) July 13, 2024
“[Hyde] was upset. He was protecting his player. He was hot in the moment,” Yankees catcher Austin Wells said. “I didn’t see Clay chirping, but I know Hyde was chirping.”
“I thought it had kind of calmed down, and then for whatever reason, things went crazy,” Orioles designated hitter Ryan O’Hearn said. “But we’ve got a tight-knit group and we support each other, and we’re going to go to battle for each other and have our guys’ backs.”
Bitterness will define every meeting between these teams the rest of the season. This might just be what the Orioles vs. Yankees rivalry has become. New York beat up on Baltimore without resistance for years. Now, the Orioles are equipped to fight back.
Tensions have persisted during each meeting this season. Controversial inside pitches were the focus of their last series in June when both teams’ best players — Aaron Judge and Gunnar Henderson — were hit. Baltimore lost the opening game before winning the next two, preventing the unwanted attention from becoming overwhelming.
The tension release Friday could have to do with how both teams have played of late. The Orioles never capitalized on the momentum from winning that June series. They’re now 8-12 and have been swept twice since the last time they saw the Yankees. They’ve scored one run over their past 31 innings.
Fortunately for Baltimore, the Yankees didn’t take advantage. They’re 6-13 and haven’t won consecutive games or a series since June 21. As a result, the Orioles have maintained a slim lead (one game) in the standings.
Both teams are crawling to next week’s All-Star break, a reset that might prove fruitful. They’ll then get a long break from each other after this weekend — Baltimore and New York won’t face off again until Sept. 24 for both teams’ penultimate regular-season series.
Perhaps that’ll be enough time for the brewing hostility to subside.
“The intensity level has pretty much been at that for the entirety of the year,” Yankees right-hander Gerrit Cole said. “So I expect it to stay.”
Until then, there are two more games to be played this weekend as the Orioles look to keep their upper hand from slipping away. The Yankees also took the series opener in June, a game that sparked debate over intentions behind hit batters and could have directed Baltimore’s attention away from winning the next two games.
But the Orioles didn’t unravel. They responded with a pair of convincing victories, some of the most important ones of Hyde’s tenure. They showed resolve rather than resentment. They’ll have Saturday and Sunday to prove whether they can do that again. The American League East title might depend on it.
“We want to go into the All-Star break on a good note, and we’ve got two more games, we can win the series, so that’s what we’re going to do,” Hays said. “Show up tomorrow, win the first one and then turn around and win the next one.”
Baltimore Sun reporter Jacob Calvin Meyer contributed to this article.