TORONTO – Mark Teixeira knew immediately that he’d hit a game-tying home run. He’d timed Jason Grilli’s fastball perfectly, sending it deep to right field.
So as he watched the baseball travel toward the second deck, the 36-year-old first baseman did something he’d never done before: he flipped his bat.
“It could be the last home run I hit,” said Teixeira, who’s retiring Sunday. “Why not bat flip on it?”
After 14 seasons and 408 home runs, he’s earned that right. In the heat of the moment, though, Grilli and catcher Russell Martin appeared to take issue with Teixeira, who promptly returned to the Yankees dugout and yelled ‘blown save’ at Grilli.
“Just letting him know that he blew the save,” explained Teixeira. “There was a lot of emotion in the game.”
Plenty of emotion, two bench-clearing incidents and four ejections. Considering that context, it’s no surprise that the typically stoic Teixeira chose this particular night for a rare display of exuberance.
Chances are, the opposing team had something to do with it, too. In the aftermath of New York’s 7-5 win, Yankees players insisted that if the Blue Jays want to show emotion, they have to be prepared for other teams to do the same.
“Those guys do it all the time,” Teixeira said. “They have fun with it. It’s the first time I’ve ever done it, so I’ll have fun with it too.”
“These guys are the king of fun” third baseman Chase Headley said. “You’ve got to take some of your medicine.”
The Blue Jays were known as an emotional team before last year’s playoffs, when Jose Bautista punctuated his ALDS home run with an epic bat flip. Since then they’ve reinforced and, often, embraced their reputation as an emotional team. Other clubs don’t always enjoy it.
“They’ve got a lot of guys over there that have a lot of bravado, if you want to call it that,” Headley said. “They enjoy it when they hit home runs. They enjoy it when they get outs. It rubs guys the wrong way sometimes.”
As an example, Headley pointed to Marcus Stroman and said the Blue Jays right-hander was “freaking screaming” at the Yankees after strikeouts Saturday, a game in which Stroman limited New York to just one hit.
Long before Teixeira stepped in against Grilli, tensions were on the rise. An erratic Luis Severino plunked Josh Donaldson with a 97 mph fastball in the first inning. Everyone at Rogers Centre, the Yankees included, knew the Blue Jays were going to take their shot at retaliation. Happ threw inside, but missed Headley, at which point the teams and umpires were left to make sense of baseball’s murky unwritten rules.
“He was throwing at Headley on purpose,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. “I don’t have a problem with that. But just a poor job by the umpires. You’ve got to give a warning.”
Happ hit Headley in the rear end with the next pitch. Benches cleared, bullpens emptied and players exchanged words. The Yankees took issue with the Blue Jays, but also with the umpires, who declined to comment on their decisions after the game.
“Usually when you throw one behind someone and you hit them on the next pitch, you’re out of the game,” Headley said. “I was shocked when he threw at me in a game of that magnitude, one of the better pitchers in the league. They’re trying to win every game they play.”
“I was mad because Happ hit him on purpose and he had one shot,” Girardi added. “You throw it behind the guy and you miss, I mean, he’s got to be tossed. That’s terrible, it’s terrible.”
Soon after order was restored, Justin Smoak stepped in to open the home half of the second inning. Severino threw at Smoak, missed, and threw at him again, hitting the Blue Jays first baseman in the thigh. This time benches cleared in a hurry, with Kevin Pillar and Devon Travis leading the charge out of the Blue Jays’ dugout.
Plenty of shoving and shouting ensued around home plate in the fracas that followed. Yankees outfielder Tyler Austin scratched his face, while Blue Jays reliever Joaquin Benoit injured his left calf, a potentially costly loss for a team short on reliable relief.
Seven innings later, Teixeira’s home run landed in right field. Depending on your perspective the ensuing celebration was somewhere between exciting and excessive.
“We’re all entertainers, aren’t we?” Teixeira said. “The ball went a long way.”