BALTIMORE – Wednesday’s bench clearing between the Yankees and Orioles won’t go down as the most memorable in baseball history, but it was certainly one of the sillier skirmishes.
The action, or mostly lack thereof, began in the fourth inning of the Yankees’ 5-4 loss when Baltimore’s Heston Kjerstad stole second base. Austin Wells responded by sailing a throw over the head of Yankees second baseman Pablo Reyes, who started in place of the injured Jazz Chisholm Jr. A leaping Reyes then landed awkwardly, his legs clipping and then straddling Kjerstad’s head.
Reyes was simply trying to go for the ball, but Kjerstad took exception to the contact. As Reyes engaged with the chirping Oriole, second base umpire Ryan Wills got in between the two. Meanwhile, Anthony Volpe laughed in apparent disbelief over Kjerstad’s reaction as he came to Reyes’ defense.
Benches cleared in Baltimore after Heston Kjerstad took exception to Pablo Reyes’ attempt to field a throw from Austin Wells. pic.twitter.com/VGKDEJaVpZ
— Fireside Yankees (@FiresideYankees) April 30, 2025
Baltimore’s Jorge Mateo then sprinted into the fray as both teams’ dugouts and bullpens followed suit. No real violence occurred during the entirely unnecessary affair, nor was anyone ejected.
Wednesday was not the first time Kjerstad found himself in the middle of a bench clearing between the Yankees and Orioles. Tensions between the two teams boiled over on a rainy night last July when the right fielder took a 96-mph Clay Holmes sinker to the head.
While the latest feud between the division rivals didn’t involve any punches, both teams smacked the ball around on Wednesday evening.
Aaron Judge started the scoring with a 426-foot, two-run homer – his 10th of the year – off Cade Povich in the first inning, while Baltimore’s Ryan Mountcastle clapped back with his own two-run shot off Carlos Carrasco in the second inning.
Ramón Urías added a solo homer two batters later. Adley Rutschman then put the finishing touches on a four-run frame with an RBI single.
Carrasco, who entered the game with the third-worst Stuff+ of any pitcher with a minimum of 20 innings, only lasted 3.1 innings and allowed eight hits. He struck out five and didn’t walk anyone.
The Yankees cut the deficit to one when Paul Goldschmidt crushed his second homer of the season in the fifth, but the Orioles were able to score on a Jackson Holliday grounder in the bottom of the inning after Anthony Volpe booted a likely double play ball.
The Yankees managed to reduce the lead to one again in the seventh inning when Judge picked up a two-out, RBI single. While that wasn’t enough to complete the Yankees’ comeback attempt, it did cap a 3-for-3 night and an insane opening month for Judge.
In addition to his 10 home runs, the 2024 AL MVP is now hitting a ridiculous .427 with a 1.282 OPS, 32 RBI and a 263 wRC+.
With Wednesday’s defeat, the first-place Yankees suffered their first series loss of the year to an American League East foe, and a last-place one at that. Now they’ll enjoy an off day on Thursday before starting another divisional series against the Rays at Yankee Stadium on Friday.
Max Fried, Clarke Schmidt and Will Warren are scheduled to start those games for the Yankees, while Ryan Pepiot, Zack Littell and Taj Bradley will throw for Tampa Bay.
