The New York Yankees lost what would have been their 12 consecutive win against the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday night, but a few terrible calls against slugger Aaron Judge stained the performance.
At the top of the 6th, with a 3–2 count, Judge struck out on an awful call by the umpire. Not only is the strike zone bigger for Judge, who stands at 6’7″, but the call was completely below his knees, indicating yet another reason why some are calling for a robo-umps.
Even manager Aaron Boone stormed the field in disarray after a similar pitch was called for a strike in the 8th inning. Judge appreciated the support from his manager, who let it rip in the face of the umpire.
“I don’t know. I was pretty mad out there,’’ Boone said. “Hopefully, I kept it in control somewhat.’’
“(Boone) stood up for us, stood up for me,’’ Judge said. “And I appreciate it.’’
With two blown opportunities for Judge to make something happen, he ended up striking out three times and walking once, lowering his batting average to .293 on the season.
When are the umps not going to absolutely screw over Aaron Judge with these shit strike calls anymore??
It's just ridiculous #NYY pic.twitter.com/uLHQxrn1EL
— Fireside Yankees (@FiresideYankees) May 5, 2022
This strike zone issue has been a legitimate problem for quite some time. In fact, according to Baseball Savant, Judge has had 366 balls called strikes below the strike zone since 2017. You can tack on another two against the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday.
Great stat mentioned on the Postgame show. Since 2017 Aaron Judge has had 366 balls called strikes below the strike zone??
(h/t @YESNetwork & @JackCurryYES) pic.twitter.com/ISf78yw442
— New York Yankees Stats (@nyyankeesstats) May 5, 2022
Despite the negligence working against Aaron, he’s still having a phenomenal 2022 season, hitting nine homers and 19 RBIs over 25 games. While his strikeout rate is above 30% after the loss, he is doing himself a lot of favors with a massive contract extension coming up. Judge declined the Yankees’ extension offers before the season began, so he will hit free agency in search of a big deal.
Nonetheless, if he continues to play at this level and dominate, the Yankees will be backed into a corner and have no choice but to offer him lucrative money. Considering they’ve already carved a section in Yankee Stadium for him, there’s simply no way they can let him walk.