Aaron Judge’s at-bat against the Toronto Blue Jays was magnified on Monday night, sparking up speculations on whether or not the New York Yankees slugger was cheating.
Judge, who was already 1-1 with a home run and two walks up to that point, took his final at-bat in the eighth inning, facing Blue Jays reliever Jay Jackson. After glancing at New York’s dugout several times during the at-bat, Judge clobbered a 460-foot home run to deep, deep center field.
This, to no surprise, prompted the online conspiracy theorists who believed that Judge and the Yankees were cheating, which afterward had a simple explanation from last season’s American League MVP himself. During the at-bat, Yankees manager Aaron Boone was chirping at the home plate umpire, which caught Judge’s attention moments before watching Boone get tossed from the game.
But despite whatever the Blue Jays or others may think, the Yankees are confident that Judge’s odd at-bat won’t result in any disciplinary action from the higher-ups. Boone told reporters that New York has been in contact with Major League Baseball and isn’t expecting any investigation based on their discussions, according to Kaitlyn McGrath of The Athletic.
Also unsurprisingly, Judge wasn’t satisfied with what a few harmless stares into his dugout could snowball into after setting a record-breaking 62-home run milestone last season.
“I’m not happy about it, but people can say what they want,” Judge said before Tuesday night’s matchup with the Blue Jays, according to Bryan Hoch of MLB.com. “I’ve still got a game to play. I’ve got things to do.”
