The Minnesota Twins and New York Yankees have always had a sort of one-sided rivalry, but after Minnesota second baseman Tsuyoshi Nishioka was taken out by Nick Swisher while trying to turn a double-play on Thursday afternoon, that rivarly might heat up.
Nishioka, who fractured his fibula during the seventh inning play, has been placed on the 15-day disabled list. To take his place, infielder Luke Hughes has been promoted from AAA Rochester to take his roster spot and should be in uniform for Friday's home opener at Target Field.
Swisher, who is shown in the video below giving Nishioka a pat on the back, checked on the Twins player in the locker room after the game.
"He didn't need to do that," Nishioka said via translation according to Matt Ehalt. "I appreciate it. Being the same athlete, I appreciated that he took the time to come over. Swisher didn't do anything that he needed to come over to apologize [for]."
"It's a professional play by Swisher and he didn't do anything bad," Nishioka continued.
Swisher was also apologetic in his post-game comments.
"I was glad I got a chance to talk to him and it definitely eased my mind," Swisher said. "He told me, 'Hey, it's not your fault, don't be mad.' I know I play hard, but you don't ever want to go in there and try and hurt somebody, so for myself, it makes me feel a lot better and I was glad I was able to talk to him."
Twins manager Ron Gardenhire seemed to be okay with the play as well, saying Swisher was "just breaking up a double play. No issues there. [Nishioka] just got caught a little flat-footed and Swisher's a clean player and that's just a good baseball slide trying to break up a double play. There's no issue there."
I've attached video below so you can judge for yourself.