DETROIT — It was some kind of 34th birthday for Brett Gardner.
Forget the four hits the left fielder had Thursday, Gardner was in the middle of one of the three bench-clearing incidents in the Yankees’ 10-6 loss to the Tigers at Comerica Park — and appeared to get in an angry shouting match with Tigers manager Brad Ausmus.
“I got a little agitated,’’ said Gardner, who was in the middle of the final melee of the game, which was prompted by Todd Frazier getting hit by Alex Wilson in the eighth inning. “There were a lot of emotions, a lot of entertainment. We don’t play these guys again this year.”
Gardner and Ausmus could be seen shouting at each other as players and coaches milled about on the field.
“Brett Gardner, I’ve always liked the way he plays from the other side,” Ausmus said. “He plays the game hard. He wasn’t real happy with me. Emotions were running high. I wasn’t happy with him at the time. That’s part of baseball, unfortunately, at times.”
Manager Joe Girardi was also incensed at Ausmus — and the umpires.
“I don’t understand it,” Girardi said of the way home-plate umpire Carlos Torres and crew chief Dana DeMuth handled the game. “Cooler heads have to prevail at some point. And the umpires have to make some good decisions in this game, because this game is very important to us. … Somebody’s got to pay attention to what’s going on in this game.’’
He was equally irritated with Ausmus, as both managers were ejected.
“And then Brad Ausmus is going to say ‘FU’ to one of my players?” Girardi said. “I mean, come on Brad, what is that?”
Asked if Gardner was the target of Ausmus’ ire, Girardi declined to specify: “Watch the tape.”
“He thought I was looking at him,” Gardner said. “I’m not sure.”
Gardner said he wasn’t pleased with how the game played out.
“Maybe it could have all been avoided,” Gardner said. “I thought the way things were handled, things got out of hand in a hurry. … You’d like to see that get squashed from the start. It’s not good for the game.”
And now the Yankees have another loss and another game has come off the schedule.
“We obviously feel like we have a lot to play for over the last five, six weeks of the season,” Gardner said. “We obviously need to try to keep everybody healthy, keep everybody on the field.”
Perhaps the emotions of the game will prove to be a positive.
“I think any time you go through some controversy, it can bring guys together,” Gardner said. “I don’t know. We’ll see.”