“Homerun Ball Don’t Lie”. Judge Hits Game-Winner to MOON. NY 6 Toronto 3

May 17, 2023 paperbacklou 2023 0
Aaron Judge hits MOON SHOT to centerfield to put Yanks up 5-3 in 8th -- his 11th homer of season.

In a wild and wacky game that started with all ‘eyes’ on Aaron Judge,

  • Domingo German was thrown out after 3 perfect innings for too much sticky rosin on his hand — by the same umpiring crew that warned him a month ago,
  • Ian Hamilton in relief immediately injured his groin,
  • Toronto and then Yankee coaches were ratting on the other team’s sideline coach positioning,
  • the Toronto manager yelled “Shut Up, Fat Boy” to someone on the Yankees,
  • and Aaron Judge hit a MONSTER SHOT TO THE CENTERFIELD MOON to put NY on top 5-3 in the 8th — the ball breaking the tip of the Westjet Maple Leaf advertisement above the bleachers.

“I’m sorry, that’s perfect. That’s just perfect,” said Suzyn Waldman on the broadcast when Judge hit the BOMB — and that was before she or anyone noticed the blast had broken the Maple Leaf sign.

Not to mention that with hardly any relievers left, the middle of the game fell to Ryan Weber, who rope-a-doped the vaunted Blue Jay lineup for 2.1 innings.

And the player of the game according to most on Yankee twitter, was Isiah Kiner-Falefa — who small-balled the Yankee 1st run, then hit a homerun, made some terrific defensive plays at 3rd base, and got the Yanks an insurance run with his astute running of the bases in the 9th.

“We’re here to play baseball,” said Aaron Judge afterwards. “We’re focused on one thing and that’s between the lines and what we have to do to win those 9 innings and win the game every single night.”

NY improves to 25-19; Toronto falls to 24-18. Both are 7.5 games behind Tampa.

1. “Shut Up, Fat Boy”

The game started out with all ‘eyes’ on Judge, and the Yankee sideline coach positioning — after the Toronto broadcast team had noticed Judge shifting his eyes to look at the Yankee dugout the night before, just before his bomb to center in the 7th.

Judge explained afterwards that he was looking into the Yankee dugout to see who was still ‘chirping’ after Boone had been thrown out by the umps for arguing strikes — feeling NY needed to get back to business. That seemed the legit reason — and as a Yankee fan noted on Twitter, if Judge had moved his head to look over, he could have been hit with a “Disengagement” — the new rule that says a batter has to be in the batter’s box and ‘alert’ for the last 8 seconds of the pitch clock.

But all of media and Twitter made a ruckus about Judge’s glance before the game — with the word being that Toronto felt Judge may have been looking at the 1st base coach for a tipped pitch.

Toronto complained to the umps during the first few innings about the Yankee coaches standing outside their coaching box.

At one point Toronto manager John Schneider was picked up yelling “Shut Up Fat Boy” to someone on the Yankees.

And then Boone and the Yankees complained back about the Toronto coach positioning.

2. German Too Perfect

Meanwhile, Domingo German was dueling Kevin Gausman — who had shut the Yankees down the last time he faced them. And German looked phenomenal from the start — getting the tough Blue Jay lineup 1-2-3 through each of the first 3 innings.

But his stuff must have looked too good — because the umps checked his hand on coming out to start the 4th — and felt the stickiness on his palm was too much, tossing him from the game. It was the same umpiring crew that warned German (but didn’t toss him) a month ago.

“His spin rates were completely normal today so idk I’m not sold,” wrote Harry Wedwaldt on Twitter.

JustusCaeden also noted it: “His spin rate was normal. How much rosin is too much?.”

German will receive an automatic 10-game suspension.

“There’s 2 kinds of Rosin bags — a rock one and a sand one,” said German afterwards through the Yankee translator. “I used a lot the sand one. A couple of games ago, they said I wasn’t using it enough on the mound. Tonite I’ve been using it a lot on the mound. That’s it — a lot of usage.”

German added when asked, “It was the game against Minnesota (he meant Cleveland) — the same group (of umpires) told me to use the Rosin on the mound.” When asked about a brown substance being shown on his hand on TV, German said that was chewing tobacco that he threw out.

“Something that I also wanted to say and have the opportunity to say,” added German. “I got to apologize to my teammates and my team. I am putting them in a tough position now, understanding how much the bullpen has been used. My plan was for tonite to pitch — and I’m putting them in a tough position.”

3. Hamilton Injured

With NY up 2-0, and German gone — Ian Hamilton was brought into the game and after a single and walk to the first 2 batters, he settled down to strike out the next two. But he walked Matt Chapman on 5 pitches — and on the final pitch immediately left the game with a groin pull.

The Yanks had to go to Ron Marinaccio — and he got Whit Merrifield on a line out to center. Phew.

4.Kiner-Falefa Small Ball; Kiner-Falefa HR

Meanwhile the Yankees kept peppering Kevin Gausman — who did not have the stuff he had in his last start against NY. Gausman came in with a 2-3 3.38 record — clearly not perfect all of the time and NY pounced on him in the 3rd: a walk to Isiah Kiner-Falefa leading off, a Jose Trevino single with Kiner-Falefa motoring to 3rd, and a single up the middle by Gleyber Torres and NY had a 1-0 lead.

Aaron Judge struck out and Harrison Bader hit a grounder to 1st to score the run — Gleyber Torres was thrown out trying to hustle to 3rd. The first of several miscues on the day for Gleyber.

In the 5th, Kiner-Falefa hit an opposite field homer to right — his first homer of the season, and it was 3-0 NY.

5. Marinaccio Ripped

After getting the lineout to end the 4th with bases loaded, Marinaccio got the first 2 outs of the 5th but then got killed by the heart of the Blue Jay order — homerun by Kevin Kiermaier, single by George Springer, RBI double by Dante Bichette, and RBI single by Vladimir Guerrero Jr.and it was a 3-3 tie.

6. Webber the “Rope-a-Dope” Hero

With no where else to turn — Deivi Garcia wasn’t walking through that door as he is in AAA, and Lou Trivino and Tommy Kahnle and Jonathan Loaisiga are all out injured — Boone turned to Ryan Weber.

And Weber got a Line Out to right to end the 5th.

Weber then rope-a-doped the 6th — single, double play, double, fly out to Center.

Weber then rope-a-doped the 7th — single, fielder’s choice, fly out to DEEP center by Dante Bichette, fly out to Center by Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

7. Judge to the MOON

And then in the top of the 8th — score tied 3-3 — Jose Trevino singled off Erik Swanson to lead off, and with 1 out, Aaron Judge stepped up — and hit one to the MOON in CENTER.

It wasn’t noticed til minutes later he broke the tip of the Maple Leaf sign.

A live look:

8. Holmes Filthy; Picks Up Gleyber in 8th

With NY up 5-3 at the time, Clay Holmes got 4 outs in the 8th due to a Gleyber Torres miscue in the field. With 1 out and Matt Chapman on 1st, Whit Merrifield hit a grounder in the hole between 1st and 2nd that Gleyber fielded and instead of taking the easy out at 1st, tried to get the runner at 2nd to no avail.

With 1st and 2nd, 1 out — Clay Holmes got tough — fly out and strike out to end the inning.

9. More Falefa Please

Isiah Kiner-Falefa led off the 9th with a double, motored to 3rd on a fly out by Aaron Hicks to right, and scored on a sac fly by Gleyber Torres for a 6-3 NY lead.

10. Wandy the Save

Wandy Peralta pitched the 9th, staked to a 6-3 lead. He got the 1st out but then Anthony Volpe got eaten up by a Hot Shot by Dante Bichette — it went under his glove for an error.

Wandy however, got a 6-4-3 double play for the old ballgame.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401471650

 

Related Articles

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*