Aaron Boone knows the Yankees are in a rut. He made his frustrations clear in recent postgame press conferences, where the usual optimist outright acknowledged the team’s poor play, no silver linings, no small victories, no subtle signs of encouragement.
It looks like things boiled over on Friday night, when home plate umpire John Tumpane delivered one of the worst called strike threes in recent memory against Aaron Judge.
After five pitches in his at-bat against Sandy Alcántara, Judge found himself in a 3-2 count. Alcántara delivered a slider approximately ankle-high to the right fielder, one that Tumpane called for strike three.