Yankees’ Aaron Judge unhappy with Blue Jays broadcasters insinuating he cheated
A day after Aaron Judge gave his reason for looking at his dugout during Monday’s win over the Blue Jays, the reigning AL MVP took offense to how Toronto’s broadcast team handled the moment.
“I’ve got some choice words about that, but I’m just going to keep that off the record,” Judge said prior to Tuesday’s game. "I’m not happy about it, but people can say what they want. I’ve still got a game to play. I’ve got things to do.”
In the now infamous call, Blue Jays broadcast team Dan Shulman and Buck Martinez questioned why Judge’s eyes darted to his dugout during an at-bat in Monday’s 7-4 win for the Yankees.
“Where’s he looking,” Martinez said. “It’s really, really unusual.”
“You don’t want to go throwing out allegations without knowing, but…” Shulman said.
The moment led to questions asking Judge why he was looking at his dugout. The outfielder said he looked to see who was “chirping” as it distracted him during his at-bat, which resulted in a 462-foot homer.
The Blue Jays are under the impression that the Yankees found a tell in their pitchers and that they used the first-base coach to convey the pitch to Judge.
"I think that there’s boxes on the field for a reason,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said prior to Tuesday’s game. “I think when it’s a glaring 30 feet where you’re not in that spot, you kind of put two and two together a little bit.”
The Blue Jays spoke with the league Tuesday morning about the moment and the game in general. The Yankees also spoke with MLB and it’s the team’s understanding that there will be no investigation.
“Nothing that went on last night was against the rules,” manager Aaron Boone said.
"We just want to make sure that every coach is where they should be on the field,” Schneider said. “And I'm confident that they will be going forward.”
Judge is in the lineup in the second game of the Yankees’s four-game set game with the Blue Jays on Tuesday night. Domingo German will take the mound for New York with Kevin Gausman on the bump for Toronto.
Will this situation spill out onto the field tonight? We’ll just have to wait and see.
