Once again, the Blue Jays prove to be all talk when it comes to their “rivalry” with the Yankees.
The latest drama happened Monday night, after which Toronto accused New York of stealing signs ahead of an Aaron Judge home run. The beef was that in the Yankees’ 7-4 win, the team’s base coaches stood outside their marked boxes. Judge, meanwhile, said he looked to the dugout because he heard “chirping.”
This is opposite of the long, word salad-y, but simpler narrative established by ESPN’s Buster Olney: Toronto was tipping pitches and the Yankees tried to communicate as such to Aaron Judge. You know, the same type of gamesmanship teams have engaged in for decades.
We can now confirm it. Speaking to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, Toronto righty Jay Jackson admitted he was tipping his slider. Yet, he thinks his bigger issue was “the timing of his delivery.”
“It was (less) my grip when I was coming behind my ear,” Jackson said. “It was the time it was taking me from my set position, from my glove coming from my head to my hip. On fastballs, I was kind of doing it quicker than on sliders. They were kind of picking up on it.”
This after both the Blue Jays and Yankees made shows Tuesday of asking the umpires to enforce coaches staying in the box. The Bronx Bombers won 6-3 on the back of, you guessed it, an Aaron Judge home run. This time, just for good measure, he ever-so-slightly broke the Rogers Centre’s newly renovated outfield space.
In the end, this is just the latest chapter in what we already know is true. The Yankees and Blue Jays don’t have a real rivalry and probably never will. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. really needs to stop willing it into existence.
Oh, and don’t mess with Aaron Judge.
