The Blue Jays were the ones chirping after the game.
The Yankees’ rival cast doubt on Aaron Judge’s claim that his view of the dugout was in response to teammates who continued to complain about the offensive zone during a 7-4 victory on Monday night.
Judge launched a massive home run to center field off Blue Jays reliever Jay Jackson shortly after SportsNet announcers first called attention to the sideways glance.
“When I got back to the dugout, one of the coaches told me that if you see the video, you would get mad,” Jackson told the Toronto Sun. “He said they tip pitches.”
The at bat came in the eighth inning, and the Blue Jays announcers had wondered if Judge’s looks were meant to see catcher Alejandro Kirk’s signs.
Blue Jays manager John Schneider was also suspicious.
The newspaper noted that Schneider was unusually late with his post-match media availability and assumed this was because he had judged Judge’s appearance.
“I saw it,” Schneider said. “A bit strange that a batter would look in that direction. He’s clearly looking in that direction for a reason and is diving into it a bit more tonight and tomorrow and making sure we do everything we can to predispose ourselves to tendencies.
“But yes, it was kind of strange to see him looking there right before a pitch came.”
In the same at bat, Yankees manager Aaron Boone was ejected for arguing over a low strike call.
Judge, who homered earlier in the game, said his Yankees teammates were still expressing frustration over the calls to home plate umpire Chris Vondrak.
“There was a lot of chirping from our dugout, which I really didn’t like in the situation where it’s a 6-0 game,” said Judge. “I know Boonie got thrown out — I tried to save Boonie by yelling time out, like, ‘Wait a minute, let me work.’ I tried to see who was chirping in the dugout It’s 6-0 Boonie got thrown let’s just get to work.
It was the first of four games between the AL East foes.
“I’m not the caliber of batter Aaron Judge and never was, but he’s obviously looking for a reason somewhere other than the pitcher at that point in his at bat,” Schneider said as he pressed the at bat.
Jackson, a 35-year-old journeyman in his third appearance of the season, was tipped off by his fiancée about the commotion around the house.
“I really haven’t seen hitters do that,” Jackson said. ‘I can’t say what he was doing. We’ll see what comes out of this and next time we’ll have a different game plan.
“I’m not going to say anything to any organization…but for him to brood for so long, it seemed like it wasn’t just a look and readjust your eyes to get back on the pitch.”
