Aaron Boone talks to Brandon Hyde after Yankees-Orioles bench-clearing brawl

BALTIMORE — After everyone involved in the bench-clearing brawl at Camden Yards late Friday night had calmed down, Aaron Boone spoke with Orioles manager Brandon Hyde.

According to Boone, the conversation went “fine” and he looked forward to discussing it with reporters Saturday afternoon.

But whether the bad blood that was on full display on Friday night – and seemed to be boiling beneath the surface in the previous series this season – spills over into the rest of the weekend remains to be seen.

Clay Holmes’s 0-2 sinker that hit Heston Kjerstad in the head in the bottom of the ninth inning was clearly not intentional, as rain began to fall and the Yankees were two steps away from winning 4–1. were away.

The Orioles did not dispute that notion, nor did the Yankees have any problem with Hyde standing up to Gjerstad and heading to the Yankees dugout – they said he was reacting to their coaches – which led to some heated pushback on the benches. -Received approval for punch and push

But there was also a feeling, at least on the Yankees’ side, that there was a lot in this series that could have been taken away from any high tension heading into the weekend.

After winning Friday night, the Yankees moved back to first place in the AL East, within one game of the Orioles.

“We’re playing too hard to get caught up in it,” Boone said. “We have to play well, we have to win ballgames. It’s the same for them.”

The most immediate result of Friday’s chaos was that Kjerstad was removed from the Orioles’ lineup on Saturday, and then placed on the seven-day concussion list just minutes before the first pitch.

The rookie left fielder was initially in the lineup, but didn’t feel 100 percent after going through pregame drills.

As far as long-term effects are concerned, after this weekend the Yankees and Orioles will meet for only one more series this year, which comes in the final week of the regular season in The Bronx, when the AL East is on the line. Could.

“These are the top two teams in the division,” Holmes said. “I think it’s a very competitive environment. We know these games mean something and we’re here to show it. Two teams battling like this, you will feel the atmosphere, you will feel the competitive energy. I think that’s the case in this series as well.

Entering Saturday, Yankees pitchers had struck out the Orioles 10 times this season.

Orioles pitchers had struck out the Yankees only three times, but there was some disappointment last month in the Yankees clubhouse during a series in which the Orioles had several instances of throwing high and tight (including having the ball on the hands of both Aaron Judge and Gleyber Torres. )

“Pitching is a part of the game,” Hyde told reporters Saturday. “Whether they killed more people than us, that’s not something I’m really worried about right now. I want to win and what we’ve done is win a lot.”

Hyde increased the fireworks on Friday, first yelling at Holmes and then going behind the Yankees dugout.

“I was emotional,” Hyde said a day later. “My man got hit in the head and I may have said some things that made me react at the time.”

Gerrit Cole, whose best start of the season on Friday was spoiled by a late-game brawl, described the tension between the two teams as “just good, tough baseball.”

“The intensity level has been pretty much the same throughout the year,” Cole said. “So I hope that continues.”

Both the Yankees and Orioles began to struggle on Friday, with the Yankees losing 18 of their last 25 games and the Orioles being swept by the Cubs and losing 12 of their last 20.

How much momentum was to be gained was to be determined by the collapse that occurred in the ninth inning on Friday night.

“Whenever the bench becomes vacant, all the boys come together,” the judge said. “But it’s baseball. You’re going to have to struggle, you’re going to have good moments, bad moments, you’re going to have times when the bench is going to be empty. But we have to stay together in this room and focus on what we can do to go out there and continue playing.