Aaron Judge is at it again. He has gone 2-for-4 in the first game of Sunday’s doubleheader against the Toronto Blue Jays and scored one of the New York Yankees’ six runs in the third inning. He came into the day leading the league in average (.408), OBP (.508), OPS (1.223), and runs scored (23), and has only added to his totals.
Judge is a frustrating player for any team to deal with, especially one in his division like the Blue Jays. Based on Kevin Gausman and John Schneider both getting ejected, it’s clear that Judge and his Yankees have gotten under their skin.
It appeared as if Gausman was going to continue his fine start to the 2025 season after he threw two straight scoreless innings to begin his day, even striking Judge out the first time they matched up, but the third inning presented all sorts of challenges.
Gausman, who had issued six free passes all season throughout his first five starts of the year, walked five batters in the third inning alone leading to six New York runs. Soon after he was pulled from the game, he was ejected and to make matters worse, stumbled down the stairs while pleading his case.
Kevin Gausman allowed six runs on five walks and two hits in the third inning
He was taken out of the game then ejected and stumbled down the dugout steps while arguing with the umpire pic.twitter.com/a6DONvRWUX
https://twitter.com/JomboyMedia/status/1916568539403604233?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
While surely there were missed calls, the umpires didn’t walk five batters by themselves. Gausman did not pitch well, and the stats back that up.
Gausman getting beaten up and run from the game wasn’t all of the damage Judge and Co. wound up causing Toronto, as Schneider suffered a similar fate later in the contest.
Kevin Gausman and John Schneider reach breaking point vs. Aaron Judge, Yankees
Schneider was fed up with home plate umpire Chris Conroy’s strike zone and, eventually, on a pitch that appeared to have nicked the strike zone, got himself ejected.
Blue Jays manager John Schneider was ejected and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was visibly frustrated at the three called strikes throughout this at bat pic.twitter.com/yBOgJuc0m0
https://twitter.com/JomboyMedia/status/1916573846770962720?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1916573846770962720%7Ctwgr%5E0539740f5570fd0dfd21845d9e181e29efa5fd38%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ffansided.com%2Fkevin-gausman-john-schneider-lose-it-after-aaron-judge-goes-off-again-blue-jays
Umpires mess up calls all the time, but for the most part, they’re good at their jobs. Conroy was clearly spot-on with this called strike in particular, and Schneider surely will realize this in the clubhouse.
At the end of the day, this might’ve been an attempt from Schneider to wake his team up, as often is the case in lopsided games like these when a manager gets tossed. Unfortunately, the Yankees have only piled on since the ejection, and lead the game 9-1 as of this writing.
