Blue Jays reliever Jay Jackson — who gave up the homer Aaron Judge hit in the eighth inning of the Yankees’ win on Monday night — was tipping his pitches and was sent down to Triple-A on Tuesday, according to the The Athletic.
Jackson brought his hands up near his ear as he gripped the ball before he came to the set position, and multiple Blue Jays sources told The Athletic that his grip, indicating which pitch he was about to throw, was visible to Yankees first-base coach Travis Chapman.
Jackson later told website in a telephone interview that he was tipping his slider but said the timing of his delivery was more of an issue than his grip.
“From what I was told, I was kind of tipping the pitch,” Jackson said. “It was [less] my grip when I was coming behind my ear. 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.”
On Monday night, Sportsnet broadcasters Dan Schulman and Buck Martinez noticed that Judge was glancing sideways during his eighth-inning at-bat against Jackson, drawing speculation in some circles that Judge may have received a sign of what pitch was coming.
If Judge was looking at Chapman for a sign regarding Jackson’s tell, that is not against MLB rules for illegal sign stealing.
The Athletic obtained a copy of Major League Baseball regulations regarding this topic.
According to the rules, MLB prohibits the stealing of signs from the dugout, but the regulations, which are updated every year, state that a coach or baserunner on the field can relay any pitch-tipping tells.
“During a game, no club personnel may communicate in any manner the opposing team’s signs or pitch Information to a batter, baserunner or coach on the field,” Regulation 1-1(B) states “The only exception to this rule is that a baserunner or coach on the field who identifies an opposing club’s signs or pitch information through his own unaided observation of the pitcher, catcher or opposing team’s dugout may communicate that information to the batter or another on-field coach.
“Pitch Information’ means any information about the type or location of an incoming pitch, or any cues of the pitcher that can help a batter identify information about a pitch (e.g., ‘pitch tipping’ information).”
Judge — who also hit the game-winning homer in the Yankees’ 6-3 win on Tuesday night — said after Monday’s win that he was peeking at the Bombers’ dugout because he was annoyed with his teammates’ continual chirping at the umpire after manager Aaron Boone had been ejected earlier in his at-bat against Jackson.
The Yankees slugger said Tuesday before the Bombers’ second win in the series that he wasn’t happy with the implication by Schulman and Martinez that some cheating may have been going on.
“I got some choice words about that, but better just to keep that off the record,” Judge told The Post’s Greg Joyce and other members of the media, when asked about the insinuation that he was cheating. “Especially with the things that have happened in this game with cheating stuff and to get that thrown out, I’m not happy about it. But people can say what they want. I still got a game to play, I got things I gotta do. I told you guys what happened and everybody else can make their own story about it.”
Judge’s sideway glance wasn’t the only controversy surrounding this series. Chapman’s positioning outside the designated area of the coaching box also drew the Blue Jays’ ire on Monday night.
Major League Baseball, which found no indication of a major rules violation on Monday night, was expected to remind the Yankees of coaches’ positioning before Tuesday’s game.
Nevertheless, that didn’t stop both teams from pointing out base coaches were outside the box during various points of Tuesday’s game.
First, the Blue Jays pointed out Yankees third-base coach Luis Rojas was out of the designated area and later in the game, Boone was pointing to the dugout about the fact Blue Jays’ third-base coach Luis Rivera was setting up outside the box.
Still, for much of the night, base coaches from both teams were routinely set up outside of the coaches’ box — as they are on a nightly basis around the league.
Domingo German also was ejected Tuesday before the bottom of the fourth inning after failing his foreign-substance check with umpires as he headed out to the mound.
The ejection comes with an automatic 10-game suspension, during which the Yankees will not be able to replace German on the roster.
𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝘁𝘀, 𝗖𝗼𝗽𝘆𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 & 𝗖𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘆: nypost.com
𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝗴𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗗𝗠𝗖𝗔,
𝗣𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝘂𝘀 𝗮𝗻 𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝗮𝘁 dmca@enspirers.com
