Aaron Judge, the 2022 American League MVP, achieved a new milestone during a game on Saturday afternoon. The Yankees slugger was ejected from a game for the first time after he argued a called third strike by home plate umpire Ryan Blakney in the seventh inning. The incident occurred when Judge disagreed with a 3-2 count fastball from Detroit Tigers pitcher Tyler Holton that he believed was outside the strike zone.
Judge expressed his disagreement with the call before walking back to the dugout, where he was ejected by Blakney. Despite the strike zone graphic showing that the pitch was on the edge of the plate but outside the zone, Blakney believed that Judge should have swung at the close pitch. Judge’s removal from the game came after going 2-for-4 with an RBI, and it marked a significant moment in his career as it was also his first ejection ever.
After being thrown out of the game, Judge expressed surprise at the decision made by Blakney and acknowledged how difficult it is to be an umpire. His teammates and manager Aaron Boone also showed their support for him and maintained that they respected Blakney’s judgment. The ejection marked a significant moment in Boone’s career as it was also his first one as manager of New York Yankees since Derek Jeter never experienced an ejection during his 12 seasons as captain.
It is worth noting that Blakney consistently called pitches just outside ofthe strike zone as strikes throughout
