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Aaron Judge explains a sneak peek during the HR at-bat
Aaron Judge explains why he kept looking at the Yankees dugout before hitting a 462-foot home run against the Blue Jays.
Television cameras showed Judge glancing at the Yankees dugout at first base before his 462-foot home run in the eighth inning Monday against Jackson.
Blue Jays announcers speculated that the judge was looking for some kind of cue, and Toronto manager John Schneider called the Slugger’s look “kind of weird,” but Jackson offered a straightforward explanation during the game. Interview with The Athletic.
“From what I’ve been told, I’ve been kind of turning the field,” Jackson told The Athletic as part of a report published Wednesday. “He was [less] My fist when you were coming behind my ear. This was the time when he would take me out of my set position, from the gauntlet coming from my head to my hips. On fastballs, I was doing it faster than on sliders. They were just kind of picking it up.”
It was the second homer of the night for the judge, who said after the game that he was trying to determine “who was tweeting from our dugout” at referee Clint Vondrak’s panel.
However, the Blue Jays did not buy the judge’s explanation, and Schneider stated that the reigning American League MVP may have been taking cues from Yankees first base coach Travis Chapman.
“If they knew it was coming and they clipped me, they clipped me,” Jackson told The Athletic. “I’m glad he hit her as much as he did.”
The judge’s homer on slider came 3-2 from Jackson – the sixth straight slider he’s thrown at bat. Jackson, who was demoted to the minors before Tuesday’s game, said several Blue Jays members told him he was turning pitches.
“One player told me I might have been flipping pitches,” he told The Athletic. And then the video guy came back later and said, “Hey, we might have picked something up on the difference between your slider and your Fastball.” Maybe it was something these guys were getting carried away with. Just be aware of it. You may want to change it next time.”
The Yankees were not accused of using electronic equipment to decode the Blue Jays’ signals, which is against Major League Baseball rules.
“If you’re doing things in plain sight, I think you have to be able to get it right and you have to be willing to take the consequences as they are,” Sneijder told reporters, according to The Athletic. “If it’s done fairly – it’s part of the game. Everyone is looking to help their teammates, everyone is looking to get a sense of tendencies, so anything that happens on the field the right way – is totally fair game.”
The Blue Jays once again brought up the topic of Chapman and third base coach Luis Rojas’ attitude during Tuesday’s game, leading to a brief shouting match involving Schneider, Rojas, Yankees manager Aaron Boone and Blue Jays coach Pete Walker.
Deciphering the opponent’s signals without electronic equipment and transmitting them to a batter that would not contravene MLB rules, Boone said he found the arguments about coach positioning “tiring”.
“It’s just ridiculous,” Boone said. “It’s absurd and I think everyone – and I hope on both sides – realizes that.”
Judge’s response to the situation was another brutal home run — a two-run blast that broke the tie-breaking eighth and lifted the Yankees to a 6-3 victory on Tuesday. The 448-foot drive to center field broke part of a white maple leaf sign—the national symbol of Canada, and the logo of Canada’s WestJet Airlines, sponsor of the center-field bar area.
The Yankees and Blue Jays wrap up their three-game series on Wednesday night in Toronto.
Information from the Associated Press is used in this report.
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