NEW YORK — There’s nothing like a little rhubarb to add some spice to a sunny day at Yankee Stadium. White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson didn’t like a hard tag applied by Yankees third baseman Josh Donaldson last weekend in Chicago, and it spilled into this weekend’s rematch series.
The culprits had words near second base after the third inning of Saturday’s 7-5 Yankees win to get the blood boiling, and tempers sure flared when Donaldson walked to the plate in the Yankees fifth. White Sox catcher Yasmani Grandal barked something to Donaldson, who yelled something back.
Then it was on. First, the two players went nose to nose, then everyone from both dugouts and bullpens spilled onto the field near home plate. The first to arrive was Anderson, who sprinted in from short to try getting at Donaldson only to be held back by two teammates and then pushed into his club’s third-base dugout.
After a delay that lasted more than five minutes, play resumed and the Yankees reeled off another victory to take the opener of a three-game set that started a day late due to Friday’s rainout and will conclude with a Sunday doubleheader.
There were plenty of actual baseball highlights, most notably DJ LeMahieu’s second career grand slam capping a five-run Yankees second that made it a 5-0 ballgame.
LeMahieu’s slam off White Sox lefty Dallas Keuchel looked like a routine flyball to right off the bat, but the ball carried on a hot afternoon where temperatures rose to the low 90s and the drive dropped about three rows into the short porch.
Yankees starter Nestor Cortes (3-1) wasn’t dominating for the first time all season, but the lefty gutted his way through five innings before leaving after 99 pitches with a 6-3 lead.
A key moment in the game came in the sixth when the White Sox scored twice off reliever Michael King to make it 6-5 only to strand the tying and go-ahead runs on base.
The Yankees added an insurance run in the home sixth on a sacrifice fly by Anthony Rizzo that made it a 7-5 game.
From there, Clay Holmes put away the win with a four-out save, his fourth of the season.
NOTABLE
-- The Yankees opted to have Holmes close out the victory over slumping closer Aroldis Chapman, who hasn’t pitched since his back-to-back shaky outings in Baltimore last Monday and Tuesday.
-- The runs scored on Cortes came on a three-run, two-out homer by Jose Abreu. They all would have been unearned if the official scorer didn’t rule a single on a hard one-hopper to first that was bobbled by Rizzo.
-- Giancarlo Stanton raised his average from .296 to .309 with a 3-for-4 afternoon.
LOOKING AHEAD
Sunday: White Sox at Yankees, Game 1, 3:05 p.m., Amazon Prime. RHP Johnny Cueto (0-0, 0.00) vs. RHP Jameson Taillon (4-1, 3.28).
Sunday: White Sox at Yankees, Game 2, 7:05 p.m., ESPN. RHP Michael Kopech (0-1, 1.54) vs. RHP Luis Severino (3-0, 3.63).
Monday: Orioles at Yankees, 7:05 p.m., YES. TBA vs. RHP Gerrit Cole (4-0, 2.89).
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Randy Miller may be reached at rmiller@njadvancemedia.com.
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