The New York Yankees faced off against the Oakland Athletics in the second game of a three-game series on Tuesday night. Walking away with a 2–1 victory helped propel the Yankees to 55 wins on the season, 12.5 games above the Toronto Blue Jays in the AL East. In all of baseball, they now host an eight-game cushion above the Houston Astros and New York Mets.
However, the Bombers continue to fight and show resiliency despite their large cushion in the standings. Manager Aaron Boone was ejected from Tuesday’s game for defending Aaron Judge’s abnormally large strike zone. Home plate umpire Stu Scheurwater was calling low pitches strikes on Judge all evening, which helped Oakland strike out the Yankees star slugger three times.
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The MLB has not been kind to Aaron Judge:
In fact, Judge has had more called strikes outside the zone than any other player in baseball this year with 53. Since 2017, he’s had 433 pitches called strikes outside the zone, which is also the most for any player per Statcast.
Boone want absolutely ballistic on the home plate umpire, yelling in his face about how low the strikes were. Scheurwater ejected Boone from the game for his actions, yelling expletives in his face and making gestures toward the other umps.
Aaron Boone is MAD MAD @short_porch pic.twitter.com/ek7jKCotSC
— Barstool Baseball (@StoolBaseball) June 29, 2022
This isn’t a rare occurrence for Boone, who frequently stands up for Judge and his strike zone issues.
Nonetheless, Judge continues to rake in 2022, hitting .289 with 28 homers and 57 RBIs. After striking out three times, he elevated his strikeout percentage to 25.2%. His percentage is just a tad bit higher than is 2021 metric.
Judge will be looking to get back in the hit column on Wednesday against Oakland. The A’s will feature Cole Irvin on the mound with a 3.29 ERA over 68.1 innings this season. He has given up nine homers and 17 walks, striking out 47 batters. On the other side, the Yankees will feature Jameson Taillon, who hosts a 3.19 ERA over 79 innings this season.