After Domingo German is ejected for illegal substance, Aaron Judge crushes another long homer in Yankees' win over Blue Jays

TORONTO – The first of four games between the Yankees and Blue Jays featured its share of the bizarre on Monday.

It was highlighted by two Aaron Judge homers, including a 462-foot shot that came after an Aaron Boone ejection, the sequence engendering some postgame dog whistles from the losing side about sign-stealing chicanery by the winners.

The second game of the series on Tuesday essentially said: hold my beer.

In a building that has seen plenty of crazy affairs over the years between the two long-time AL East rivals, Tuesday night’s 6-3 Yankees’ victory at Rogers Centre secured a fairly high ranking on that list.

Yankees starter Domingo German is looking at a 10-game suspension after being ejected on his way to the mound for the fourth inning for using an illegal substance. The pitcher insisted it was rosin while crew chief James Hoye told a pool reporter, “It was definitely not rosin,” and added, “It's the stickiest hand I've ever felt.”

German was ejected by Hoye, who led the crew at the Stadium on April 15 that twice warned German about excess stickiness on his hands but allowed him to stay in the game. That led to the ejection of Twins manager Rocco Baldelli.

“He’s been in the crosshairs a little bit and it raised to a level that they (umpires) didn’t feel was good,” Aaron Boone said of German. “And ultimately that’s Domingo’s responsibility.”

Said German: “I have to apologize to my teammates and my team. I’m putting them in a tough position right now.”

The game also was highlighted by another Judge homer – this one also coming in the eighth inning and traveling a mere 448 feet off righthander Erik Swanson on, like Monday’s, a down-the-middle slider – that broke a 3-3 tie.  

“He’s the best player in the world for a reason,” Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who went 2-for-3 with three runs, said of Judge.

The blast gave Judge 11 homers, which leads the Yankees (25-19), who have won 10 of their last 14.

But there was more.

The day started with Major League Baseball looking into Monday's game when Judge’s eyes glanced at his dugout while in his batting stance in the Yanks' 7-4 win. Also, the league reminded both teams to have their first and third base coaches stay in their respective coaching boxes (a rule seldom if ever enforced as coaches from all 30 teams generally are outside those boxes).

By the third inning Tuesday, some Blue Jays dugout personnel took to yelling at Luis Rojas about his placement on the field. Rojas took exception to it.

“It’s just silliness,” Boone said disgustedly of the coaching box kerfuffle from Monday that bled into Tuesday, declining to offer more but not really needing to. “It’s ridiculous and I think everyone, I hope, on both sides realizes it.”

Also, reliever Ian Hamilton, who took over for German, departed the game after walking a batter with two outs in the fourth with right groin tightness that Boone afterward indicated likely will land the pitcher on the injured list.

The typically impenetrable Ron Marinaccio came on and eventually coughed up a 3-0 lead. But soft-throwing contact specialist Ryan Weber gutted out 2 1/3 scoreless innings and was the clubhouse recipient of the championship belt, awarded after each win by players.

The game somewhat settled from there, with Judge’s monstrous homer giving the Yankees a lead that Clay Holmes and Wandy Peralta protected. After Gleyber Torres’ sacrifice fly brought in Kiner-Falefa, who had doubled, in the ninth to make it 6-3, Peralta threw a scoreless ninth for his third save in four chances.   

“I would describe it as we’re here to play baseball,” Judge said of the previous 24 hours and all it entailed. “We’re focused on one thing and that’s between the lines and what we have to do to win those nine innings. When you have all 26 guys focused on that one thing, any other noise outside of that, it doesn’t bother us. We have a job to do on the field.”