Aaron Judge seems to be one of the few Yankees not beefing with the umpires lately. But without saying a word, he still may have given the Bombers their latest rallying cry with Sunday’s homage to Brett Gardner’s bat-banging.
Yes, this has become a thing.
After both his hits in Sunday’s 8-4 loss to Cleveland, Judge looked right into the Yankees’ dugout and mimicked holding a bat and banging it on the dugout roof, as Gardner often does.
Gardner had been one of three Yankees ejected on Saturday, tossed by first base umpire Phil Cuzzi for banging his bat on the dugout ceiling. Before Sunday’s series finale, Aaron Boone said he spoke with Gardner and warned him that umpires might be eyeing him specifically to see if he keeps banging his bat.
So he didn’t. Instead, when the Bleacher Creatures chanted Gardner’s name during roll call, he pretended to bang his bat on the dugout roof. Then Judge did him one better, mimicking the motion after his third-inning single and again after his ninth-inning RBI double.
“Yeah, he’s one of the leaders of this team,” Judge said. “We do a lot of crazy things in that dugout when we get on base. Just showing support for him. He’s the leader of this team so we’re just supporting him.”
Despite Boone saying he’d prefer to avoid any contention with the umpires, he couldn’t help but laugh about Judge’s celebrations.
“Those guys are really close,” said Boone, chuckling before adding, “There’s little things that happen throughout the course of the year all the time that are kind of inside things between guys. So that was probably a little more of that.”
When asked if this might be the newest version of the Yankees “thumbs down” celebrations, Judge said, “It might be. … That might be the new thumbs down. We’ll see.”
For Judge, it marked the first time he managed consecutive multi-hit games since July 23-24. And he didn’t get any favors from Cuzzi, when the plate umpire called a low strike on him in the first inning to make it 0-2, then punched him out on a check swing when he probably should have gotten help from Tom Hallion at first base.
But Judge is known for getting along with the umpires, and even had a laugh with second base ump Todd Tichenor after his double.
“I asked him where are you guys headed next? He said, ‘Going to Texas.’ [I said] ‘It’s going to be a hot one, so bring appropriate clothes,’ ” said Judge, confident the recent testiness with the umpires won’t have any lingering repercussions.
“Not really. We’ve got a job to do, just like they do. … We’re going to keep going out there and playing, it doesn’t matter who is umpiring or not. That’s not our job. Our job is to go out there and win ballgames here for the New York Yankees. I don’t think anything will carry over with them.”
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