It took 22 games, but Yankees manager Aaron Boone finally had enough.
Boone was ejected in the eighth inning of Sunday’s 4-0 win over the Tampa Bay Rays after a controversial sequence that saw Aaron Judge lose a home run and then get called out on strikes.
Judge’s towering blast called foul
With one out in the top of the eighth, Aaron Judge launched what looked like his ninth home run of the season. The ball soared well beyond the left-field wall at Steinbrenner Field, clearing the trees behind the stadium.
“It was probably the furthest ball I’ve ever seen hit,” said Cody Bellinger, who watched from the dugout.
But third-base umpire Scott Barry called it foul, and to the Yankees’ disbelief, a replay review didn’t overturn the call—despite angles suggesting the ball stayed fair by at least 10 feet.
Boone furious after replay fails to overturn call
“The audacity of the call standing is remarkable,” Boone said after the game. “It’s a home run. It didn’t go our way.”
Judge was equally sure it should have counted.
“It was a fair ball,” he said. “I saw it the whole way. It stayed inside the pole.”
Instead of adding a crucial insurance run, Judge was forced to continue the at-bat—and was called out on a 3-2 slider that clipped the outside corner.
That’s when Boone stormed out of the dugout. First, he went after home plate umpire Adam Beck, who quickly ejected him. Then Boone turned his attention to Barry, pointing emphatically down the left-field line as he voiced his anger over the foul call.
Boone later admitted he had been frustrated for most of the game. In the second inning, Jasson Dominguez was called out on two inside pitches that appeared off the plate.
“Home plate wasn’t great today,” Boone said.
Boone, who was ejected 39 times in his first seven seasons, picked up his first of 2025 on Sunday. He believed the Yankees had done all they could by challenging the call.
“That’s all we can do,” he said. “It’s high and towering, but once it goes to replay, I guess they couldn’t find enough conclusive evidence.”
The Yankees’ bench clearly felt otherwise. Several players expressed disbelief after the decision was upheld.
Beyond the missed run, the moment could matter in the long run. Judge, who hit an American League-record 62 home runs in 2022 and followed it up with 58 in 2024, is on another potential record-breaking pace. That blast would have been No. 9 on the year.
“Those add up,” Boone said.
Judge, for his part, didn’t take shots at the umpires, but his disappointment was obvious.
As if the foul-ball ruling wasn’t enough, the Yankees were hit by another controversial call later in the game. In the sixth inning, Rays rookie Chandler Simpson reached on a grounder that was initially scored as an error.
But two innings later, the official scorer reversed the ruling to a hit, erasing Max Fried’s no-hit bid just as he was preparing to begin the eighth inning. Fried later gave up a clean single but still completed eight shutout innings.
Boone didn’t hold back when asked about the reversal.
“I scratch my head at official scorers nightly,” he said. “They throw an error on the board at Yankee Stadium, and then we go to these other places…”
The scoring change didn’t affect the outcome, but it added to the day’s growing frustration over what the Yankees saw as preventable mistakes.
Despite the drama, the Yankees shut out the Rays and improved their record behind another stellar outing from Max Fried. The left-hander dominated through eight innings, allowing just two hits after the scoring reversal.
The offense did just enough, with contributions from Cody Bellinger, Anthony Volpe, and Ben Rice, who appears to have avoided serious injury after a mid-game scare.
What’s next for the Yankees?
The Yankees will look to build on their momentum as they continue their series in Tampa. As for Boone, he’s hoping Sunday’s umpiring drama doesn’t become a trend.
“It’s just frustrating,” Judge said, reflecting on the day. “But we keep going. That’s baseball.”
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