NEW YORK -- During the Houston Astros' 15-1 win over the New York Yankees on Tuesday, Carlos Gomez told Joe Girardi and the Yankees' dugout to "shut up," causing the benches to clear in the sixth inning. Gomez's three-run home run later in the game probably didn't help matters, either.
With Houston already up 9-0, Gomez just missed a Chris Capuano pitch and disappointedly flipped his bat toward his own dugout as he flied out to center. He also said something to himself.
That was too much emotion for some of the Yankees players and Girardi to handle from a player whose team had a nine-run lead.
Girardi said his players yelled something at Gomez, which Gomez said he didn't fully understand. Gomez said he was just seeking some clarity in his return to the dugout.
"I did not understand very well what people were yelling at me," Gomez said. "I just asked, 'Why are you yelling at me?' And then someone came out of the dugout and started screaming, and I said, 'Shut up, shut up; if you want to tell me something, come here and say what you have to say.'"
Girardi instructed the "emotional" Gomez to "play the game the right way."
"When [Gomez] came back, he started yelling at me," Girardi said. "I wasn't the guy who said anything. He is a kid, who plays hard, but there have been a number of clubs who have taken exception to some of the things he does on the field. It just got a little heated.
"I just told him, 'Play the game the right way.' They are kicking our rear ends, show a little professionalism to the pitcher. I know you missed a pitch and you are frustrated by it. I just think it is a little too much."
Gomez telling the Yankees to "shut up" three times on his way back to the Astros' bench further infuriated the Yankees' bench. The benches cleared, but no punches were thrown. Gomez and John Ryan Murphy, the Yankees' catcher, were the closest to each other during the altercation.
"I just think there was no room for that in a 9-0 game," Murphy said. "There's never any time for that, but I think especially in a 9-0 game, anything of that nature is [never] called for."
"I don't care what Joe Girardi says. ... If [the Yankees] feel frustrated, that's not my problem. This is part of the game, part of the nature of competition, and those who don't know how to compete, can just go home and cry."Carlos Gomez
After the blowout, Gomez said he is not listening to Girardi, anyway.
"I don't care what Joe Girardi says," Gomez told ESPN Deportes' Marly Rivera.
Gomez said he understood the Yankees' frustration but felt he wasn't trying to show them up.
"If they feel frustrated, that's not my problem," Gomez told Rivera. "This is part of the game, part of the nature of competition, and those who don't know how to compete, can just go home and cry."
In the seventh, Gomez got payback by taking Capuano deep for a three-run homer. Gomez ran the around the bases in his customary excited fashion, but there were no extra histrionics.
As for Yankees catcher Brian McCann, he was on the bench during the incident. Two years ago, McCann famously had a showdown with Gomez at home plate after Gomez enjoyed a home run too much for McCann's liking. McCann played for Atlanta then, while Gomez was with Milwaukee.
McCann was not in the Yankees' postgame clubhouse. It is unknown whether he was one of the players who yelled at Gomez.