The Toronto Blue Jays lost to the New York Yankees 6-5 in heartbreaking fashion Tuesday on a three-run, walk-off home run from Aaron Judge. But the main talking point after the game was a pair of controversial decisions by the umpires that led to three members of the Blue Jays being ejected.
After Yimi Garcia came out of the bullpen in the sixth inning and gave up a three-run homer to allow the Yankees to tie the game, former Blue Jays great Josh Donaldson stepped to the plate. Garcia got ahead of Donaldson with a strike but then plunked the third baseman with his second pitch — and crew chief Alfonso Marquez decided to eject the right-hander.
As Donaldson made his way to first, Garcia and Blue Jays pitching coach Pete Walker argued the decision, with Walker soon joining the pitcher in the clubhouse. Speaking afterward, Marquez told a pool reporter that he ejected Garcia because he believed the plunking was intentional due to an earlier discussion between Donaldson and Blue Jays catcher Tyler Heineman.
“Earlier in the game, there were some words exchanged between Donaldson and Toronto’s catcher, so that definitely played into it. There were pretty strong words,” Marquez said.
“Then you have a game-tying home run and the second pitch, which we deemed intentional, which was the reason for the ejection. All that really played into it. It had nothing to do with (Donaldson’s) reaction. It had everything to do with the game situations that led up to that specific incident.”
The reporter then asked Marquez why Garcia would want to hit Donaldson in that situation, given the score and earlier events of the inning.
“Given all the situations up to that specific moment, we just deemed it intentional. And when that happens, we have to eject and/or (give) warnings, but we felt ejection was the way to go,” he responded.
Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo disagreed with Marquez’s explanation and said he was “proud” of the way his team responded to the calls.
“Believe me, we could have said, ‘Oh the umpires are against us’ and all of that stuff. No, we battled back and we had the best closer in baseball there in the ninth inning,” Montoyo said.
Donaldson told reporters after the game that the umpire was “put in a tough decision” on the call.
“In my heart of heart, I don’t think that it was (intentional),” he said. “But it didn’t look good on television, that’s for sure.”
Later in the game, the Yankees appeared to be looking for some retribution when reliever Jonathan Loáisiga buzzed Blue Jays star Bo Bichette with a pitch inside that the shortstop had to duck to avoid. No punishment was given to Loáisiga for the pitch and Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo was ejected from the game after he came out to argue the decision.
When asked about this incident, Marquez said the umpiring crew didn’t feel Loáisiga threw at Bichette intentionally.
“That was the reason for no action taken, it wasn’t deemed intentional, it was just a pitch inside, which they can still do, pitch inside all they want,” the crew chief said. “There was no intention deemed behind it so therefore there was no action taken. They didn’t like it.”
For his part, Bichette didn’t think Loáisiga deserved to be ejected either, but he said the Garcia decision “was surprising.”
“There’s no reason why anybody would try to hit anybody in a 3-3 game,” Bichette said. “There was just as much reason for us to hit him as there would have been for them to hit me, which is none.”
The Yankees and Blue Jays won’t have much time to simmer down after this game. The two teams will meet again at Yankee Stadium Wednesday afternoon, with first pitch scheduled for 12:35 p.m. ET on Sportsnet and SN NOW.
With files from Shi Davidi.