Toronto Blue Jays contacts MLB about Aaron Judge and New York Yankees

Toronto Blue Jays have reached out to Major League Baseball about Aaron Judge appearing to glimpse his New York Yankees dugout for what they believe were clues as to which field awaits him in Monday’s game.

The Blue Jays are apparently investigating where the Yankees base coaches were positioned.

“There are boxes on the field for a reason,” said Blue Jays manager John Schnieder.

For his part, Judge said he was trying to identify which of his Yankees teammates yelled at plate umpire Clint Vondrak as he peeked into his own dugout before hitting a 142-yard home run in Toronto Monday night.

The Yankees slugger glanced to the side for a moment before running at 114.9 mph from right-hander Jay Jackson.

After facing the bench, Judge hit a 142-yard home run at a runout speed of 114.9 mph

“There was quite a lot of chirping from our dugout, which I really didn’t like in the situation,” said Judge. New York led 6-0 at the time and then won 7-4.

Three pitches earlier, Vondrak ejected New York manager Aaron Boone for arguing with Judge. Boone came out of the dugout to vent to Vondrak and crew chief James Hoye.

Toronto broadcasters noticed Judge peeking into his own dugout before his homer and speculated that he was looking for some sort of signal.

Dan Shulman and Buck Martinez, the veteran Blue Jays broadcast team on Sportsnet, replayed the incident, wondering where Judge’s gaze was wandering.

‘What is that? Where is he looking?” Shulman said on the live broadcast. And he did it more than once. Did you see what I saw? You don’t want to make accusations without knowing it, but…”

Judge then hit his second home run “a country mile,” in Shulman’s words.

Martinez added: “He looks at something and the next move is that power swing and he shoots one to midfield. As his head was, I don’t know if he the catcher just looked like that.’

“It’s kind of odd for a batter to look in that direction,” said Blue Jays manager John Schneider. He’s clearly looking in that direction for a reason.

“I think we’ll dive into that a bit more tonight and tomorrow and make sure we do everything we can to not predispose ourselves to tendencies, venues, pitches or anything like that.”

Judge said some of his teammates were still voicing their displeasure from the back of the Boone row as his batting continued.

“I feel like after the manager does his thing, it’s like, ‘Guys, our pitcher still has to go out and make a few pitches. We’re in charge, let’s just get to work here,'” Judge said.

“I said a few things to some guys in the dugout and especially after the game. Hopefully it won’t happen again.’

Toronto replaces Jay Jackson: ‘I haven’t seen batters do that before, so I can’t say what he was doing.

“We’ll see what comes out of this. We’ll have a different game plan next time. … If he knew it was coming, I’m glad he didn’t miss it.’

Boone said he understood Judge’s frustration at the dugout’s distraction.

“Judgie kind of looked around, like I was batting here,” Boone said.

Judge hit two solo home runs on Monday, his ninth and 10th of the season. It was his third multihomer game this year and the 30th of his career.

Judge has 30 home runs against Toronto, his second-highest total against an opponent behind 35 times vs. Baltimore.