Jay Jackson came back to the Blue Jays dugout after serving up a 462-foot moonshot to Aaron Judge in the top of the eighth inning on Monday night, and one of his coaches greeted him with a warning.
“You’re going to be pissed when you see the video,” Jackson said, when recounting a conversation with his coach. “He said they are tipping pitches.”
The reference was to a viral video clip of the game’s television broadcast that saw Judge peek to his right out of the corner of his eye multiple times during his eighth inning at-bat, which resulted in Judge pummeling a hanging slider for his second home run of the night.
The Blue Jays TV announcers pointed out Judge’s glances, and their suspicion spread throughout social media, and reached the Toronto dugout.
“I'm not going to say anything against any organization,” Jackson said, via the Toronto Sun. “But for him to be peaking over for that amount of time, it seemed like it wasn't just a glance and re-adjusting to get back on the pitcher.”
Toronto manager John Schneider also admitted that it was peculiar by Judge, who after the game explained that he was peeking into his own dugout to see who was still chirping at the umpires after Aaron Boone had been tossed for arguing a strike call on Judge in the same at-bat.
“Kind of odd that a hitter would be looking in that direction,” Schneider said, via The Sun. “He’s obviously looking in that direction for a reason and dive into it a little more tonight and tomorrow and make sure we’re doing everything we can to make ourselves susceptible to tendencies.
“But yeah, it was kind of odd to see him looking over there right before a pitch came.”
Follow Ryan Chichester on Twitter: @ryanchichester1
Follow WFAN on Social Media
Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | Twitch
Listen live to WFAN:
Audacy App | Online Stream | Smart Speaker (just say ‘Play W-F-A-N’)