TORONTO — For the second straight night, the Yankees became steeped in a controversy against the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre.
After three no-hit innings Tuesday, Yankees starter Domingo German was ejected by umpires following an inspection of his pitching hand.
James Hoye was the plate umpire and crew chief. It was Hoye’s crew that warned German of excess use of rosin, April 15, in a game at Yankee Stadium against the Minnesota Twins.
At that time, Twins manager Rocco Baldelli felt that German should have been ejected since the umpires told him to clean off the excess rosin and he came back out with some sticky substance still on part of his hand.
German, through an interpreter, said it was because he works the rosin bag between innings, in the dugout.
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All four umpires convened Tuesday after a routine inspection of German’s pitching hand as he came out to pitch the bottom of the fourth inning, with the Yankees leading 2-0.
“The instant I looked at his hand, it was extremely shiny and extremely sticky,” Hoye a pool reporter after the Yankees’ 6-3 win. “It’s the stickiest hand I’ve ever felt. My fingers had a hard time coming off his palm.”
German maintained that the only thing on his hand was rosin.
“It was definitely just the rosin bag,” German said through a translator. “It was sweat and the rosin bag. I don’t need any extra help to grab the baseball.”
Ian Hamilton replaced German, who is now facing an automatic 10-game suspension by MLB.
Given all the time he needed to warm up, Hamilton loaded the bases with one out and exited the game after a visit to the mound by an athletic trainer and manager Aaron Boone.
Hamilton was replaced by Ron Marinaccio, who kept the Yanks’ two-run lead intact.
Before the game, MLB officials became involved with the Yankees and Blue Jays, regarding the positioning of Yankees base coaches Travis Chapman and Luis Rojas following Monday night’s 7-4 Yankees win.
In the eighth inning of that game, TV cameras caught Aaron Judge’s eyes darting toward the Yankees dugout right before several of reliever Jay Jackson’s pitches, the last of which Judge crushed for his second homer of the game.
During the third inning of Tuesday night’s game, umpires seemed to warn Rojas, the Yanks’ third base coach, about straying beyond the coaching lines. After some apparent heated moments between Rojas and the umpires, Rojas resumed his place along the third base coaching lines.
The Yankees appeared to use the same complaint in the fourth inning to prevent Toronto third base coach Luis Rivera from straying beyond the lines.
Meanwhile, coaches from both sides appeared to be jawing at one another at various points early in the game, with Toronto’s bench getting chatty with Rojas, positioned near the home dugout on the third base side.
By the fourth inning, both the first base coaches of the Yanks and Jays were standing at least 10 feet beyond the coaching line.
Judge hit another homer in the Yankees’ 6-3 win.
