'We expect those kinds of swings': Judge's blast powers Yanks

TORONTO – It was perhaps the Yankees' most bizarre regular-season game in recent memory. Their starting pitcher was ejected for a foreign substance, a key reliever hobbled off the field with a groin injury, and the bullpen flushed an early lead -- all while the umpiring crew diligently checked to see where the first- and third-base coaches were standing.

Yet, with one mighty swing and all eyes fixed upon him, Aaron Judge restored order. Judge blasted a go-ahead two-run home run in the eighth inning, a prodigious blast that helped power the Yankees’ 6-3 victory over the Blue Jays while -- incredibly -- cracking a lit maple leaf that overlooks Rogers Centre’s second deck.

“I just describe it as, we’re here to play baseball,” Judge said. “We’re focused on one thing, and it’s between the lines of what we’ve got to do to win those nine innings of the game every night. When you’ve got all nine guys in the lineup focused on that one thing, any distractions or noise outside of that doesn’t bother us. We’ve got a job to do on the field.”

Judge pummeled a slider from right-hander Erik Swanson, sending it a Statcast-projected 448 feet with an exit velocity of 113.1 mph. The drive chipped the top right corner of the leaf, which rests below the windows of a recently renovated social area.

It momentarily quieted a crowd of 35,112 that had booed the reigning American League Most Valuable Player earlier in the evening, a carryover from the televised images from Monday’s game that appeared to show Judge’s eyes darting toward the visiting dugout during an at-bat.

“What a great at-bat; a great swing,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “It was a difficult game for us to get through, and just another gutsy effort by that group out there, that just keeps on competing. Judge embodies that as well as anyone.”

As Judge rounded first base, he pointed toward right field -- not to the crowd of hecklers, but to the Bombers’ bullpen, which soaked up 18 unexpected outs following right-hander Domingo Germán’s ejection.

“Those guys were grinding all night,” Judge said. “The guys that were left down there, I was giving them a little shoutout.”

Said Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who homered and scored three runs in the win: “That’s the MVP. We expect those kinds of swings. I’m not surprised when he does those things anymore. He’s the best player in the world for a reason.”

The imagery was cinematic, which seemed appropriate, because this was a game dripping with drama. You had the Germán ejection in the fourth, when crew chief James Hoye said they discovered the pitcher’s hand was “extremely shiny and extremely sticky,” with the veteran umpire adding: “It’s the stickiest hand I’ve ever felt.”

Germán’s shoulders slumped as he exited, having retired all nine batters he had faced. Ian Hamilton relieved Germán and faced five men before he, too, was heading for the dugout. Hamilton sustained a right groin injury and he will likely be placed on the injured list.

There was a bubbling subplot of war between the benches, stemming from the Blue Jays’ belief that Judge’s darting eyes were obtaining tipped pitch information. The Jays jockeyed third-base coach Luis Rojas to stay within the painted lines of his coaching box; later, Boone would alert Hoye to a similar infraction by Toronto's Luis Rivera, calling the whole ordeal “tired.”

“I feel like we’ve been playing a lot of chaotic games lately,” Kiner-Falefa said. “The AL East is a different animal. It’s fun. It’s what you want when you’re playing baseball. Our guys are able to stick together and find ways to pull it out.”

Toronto tied the game in the fifth, inflicting two-out damage on Ron Marinaccio. Kevin Kiermaier homered, Bo Bichette roped a run-scoring double and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. notched a run-scoring single.

But the Yanks' bullpen locked it down from there, paced by Ryan Weber, who tossed 2 1/3 scoreless innings. Clay Holmes worked the eighth and Wandy Peralta nailed down his third save.

“Nothing has been ideal about the start of this season, but I know we’re going to show up and play our butts off,” Boone said. “I’ll sign up for that. I’ll sign up for going out there every day with this group.”