Yankees and Royals ratchet up intensity as benches clear after Anthony Volpe’s hard tag

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A hard tag led to some hard feelings in the Yankees-Royals game.

Benches and bullpens cleared Thursday in the bottom of the sixth inning in Game 4 of the ALDS, but no punches were thrown before order was restored after the hard tag at second base applied by Anthony Volpe on Maikel Garcia.

It was the back end of a pretty 3-3-6 double play started by first baseman Jon Berti.

Volpe gave Garcia what looked like an accidental forearm shiver to the neck as he applied the tag, and then circled back to tag Garcia on the chest.

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It looked like Garcia understood it as a baseball play, Volpe patted him on the back twice and then it seemed like third baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. — who has been at the center of controversy — walked over and started jawing with Garcia.

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The crowd, which had its energy sucked away by the Yankees’ 3-0 lead, came to life as if waiting for a brawl.

The attention had been on Chisholm for the last two games — constant boos ever since he claimed that the Royals “got lucky” in their Game 2 win.

A “Yankees suck” chant broke out in the ballpark, and the Royals were able to respond with one run.

Emotions were still running hot in the top of the seventh when Royals pitcher Angel Zerpa struck out Gleyber Torres to end the frame.

Zerpa stared down Torres and perhaps the Yankees’ bench as he walked off the mound and barked a few indiscernible words.

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