In the middle of the Saturday afternoon game between the Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees, there were some fireworks. It was at Yankee Stadium so it wasn’t the type of fireworks that you normally see at Guaranteed Rate Field.
There have been issues between Josh Donaldson and the Chicago White Sox for a while now. It all started in 2021 when Donaldson was playing for the Minnesota Twins. He decided to call out Lucas Giolito publically over the “sticky stuff” conversation that was happening around the league.
There were boos at Guaranteed Rate Field, comments back to him in the media from White Sox players, and a whole lot of bad blood. Well, the Minnesota Twins decided over the winter that they were no longer getting their money’s worth with Donaldson anymore so they traded him to the New York Yankees.
Well, some of that bad blood spilled over into the 2022 season clearly. Last week at Guaranteed Rate Field, Tim Anderson had words with Donaldson after a bang-bang play at third base. Nothing serious came of it though.
The Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees all of the sudden have issues.
On Saturday, the White Sox and Yankees got together again but this time it was in New York. Josh Donaldson and Tim Anderson had more words in the infield as the inning was coming to an end. Once again, however, nothing really came of it.
Later in the game, Donaldson came up to bat after Giancarlo Stanton singled. Yasmani Grandal was clearly not happy with him and gave him an earful before the at-bat. Before you knew it, the benches and bullpens were cleared at Yankee Stadium.
Benches cleared in the Bronx!!! pic.twitter.com/sNNfq8zvQw
— White Sox Talk (@NBCSWhiteSox) May 21, 2022
Tim Anderson had to be restrained and brought to the dugout by both Jose Abreu and Gavin Sheets who are both very big men. Donaldson was doing his typical tough guy act once things started to get rough out there.
To be honest, this doesn’t really have anything to do with White Sox vs Yankees. It is all Donaldson vs the White Sox. He could play for the Miami Marlins and this stuff will still happen. It is all nonsense that is just necessary for a game like this.
It was good to see Yasmani Grandal step up for his guy though. This team has had a very mediocre start to the season and they need a spark. We can only hope that this brings them together as a unit so that they can start winning a whole lot more.