Baseball: A Two-Way Player

Chapter 731 45: Benches Cleared, Situation Escalates

And this retaliatory action once again led to the second bench-clearing between the two sides:

If not for some of the older players on the Astros knowing they were at fault and desperately holding back Gurriel, who was ready to go up and fight Severino, this game might not have continued, instead becoming a UFC brawl.

The actions of the players on both sides were getting more intense, and the tension of the match was escalating.

Yet neither the Yankees nor the Astros showed any intention of wanting to settle - clearly, this game had gradually shifted from a battle of pride to a showdown that no one wanted to lose or could afford to lose.

After the first inning where the twin stars teamed up to score 1 point, the batters on both sides were locked down:

Severino on the mound today finally showed his regular season Cy Young-level performance, continuously throwing 98 mph fireballs to strike out the Astros batters;

On the other side, Dallas Keuchel also displayed master-level performance, securing 10 Ks in 7 innings and retiring the side perfectly.

Whether it was the impact of the conflict, the Astros' lineup, whose offensive stats were almost all at the top of the American League, except for home run numbers slightly less than the Yankees, went completely silent this game:

Especially their center fielder "Springer", George Springer, who had a batting average of over .400 and an OPS of 1.180 in the series against the Red Sox, turned into a dud in this game;

And previously performing well, Yuli Gurriel was greeted with various hit-by-pitch calls from the Yankees pitchers, and to protect the player, Hinch took him out early.

The final result of the game was 1:0, with the New York Yankees enduring the deafening boos at Minute Maid Park and securing a valuable away victory, which meant they had eliminated the home-field advantage gap in the series and even had the opportunity to end the series in their home stadium and advance to the World Series!

But unexpectedly, when the game ended and the coaches and players of both teams were surrounded by a swarm of reporters, no one's attention was on the game itself;

What everyone wanted to know the most at the moment was their view of the conflict in the top of the inning.

"Yuli definitely didn't mean it, actually the word Chinito in Spanish really doesn't have a racial connotation; as for that gesture, he indeed did something dumb, I will personally take him to apologize to Lin face-to-face."

Carlos Beltran, the veteran leader in the Astros' locker room, gave this explanation in front of the reporters.

And on the Yankees side, the response to this was equivocal. Sabathia, also a locker room leader, stood up:

"Lin is my brother and an important part of our team. The Astros player did something unforgivable to him and wants to let it go easily; there's no such thing in this world - I am Black, I know how awful it feels to be racially discriminated against. My 3-year-old daughter knows you have to face consequences when you make mistakes, so they must pay the price."

And accompanying the team to the away game, General Manager Brian Cashman also gave his response:

"As the team's General Manager, I have an obligation to protect my players from harm - the Astros' behavior has caused immense emotional damage to our players, I don't want to say much, I will organize all of this and submit it to the Major League official, I believe Rob (Robert Manfred, the MLB Chairman at the time) will give us justice."

At the same time, thanks to Lin Guanglai's accumulated connections and popularity in the entire East Asia region, the MLB also received numerous official letters from many of their partners, in which they expressed their wish for the league to issue corresponding punishments;

Civil society in North America, including major media outlets in New York and Asian communities across the U.S., also organized spontaneously, expressing their strong views on the matter, equally hoping for MLB to give a response.

For a moment, the situation is gradually escalating.

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Note 1: To prevent anyone from saying I'm using the classic racial discrimination plot, let me clarify, this incident truly happened in reality, it was what Yuli Gurriel did to Darvish in the 2017 World Series, and in this book, because there was no following World Series between the Astros and Dodgers, placing it here seems normal to me. The league's subsequent punishment in my view was quite unsatisfactory, just a 5-game suspension next season plus donating 5 games' salary to charity.