BALTIMORE — Aaron Judge is no stranger to having all eyes on him when he steps to the plate.
Now, they might be on his hand whenever he slides into a base.
Judge’s sliding form came into question Sunday when his outstretched left hand broke up a potential double play in what became a 15-5 win over the Brewers.
Shortstop Willy Adames’ throw to first hit off Judge’s fingers — protected by the sliding glove that looks like an oven mitt — giving the Yankees an extra out to work with and opening the floodgates for a seven-run rally.
Crew chief Andy Fletcher breathed life into the controversy after the game when he told a pool reporter that, upon reviewing a replay, the umpires should have called interference on Judge “because it wasn’t a natural part of his slide.”
Judge insisted that is how he always slides — which is backed up by video evidence — and manager Aaron Boone did not agree with Fletcher’s comments.
“I don’t understand that,” Boone said Monday before the Yankees opened a four-game series against the Orioles at Camden Yards. “I’m waiting to hear back from the league on that. You look at how Aaron slides — when you slide, you put your arms up. That’s usually how you go in to slide.
“Aaron’s very big, so it looks maybe a little different when you break it down and they actually hit his hand. I don’t know. Waiting to hear from the league on that. But I don’t know how you change what you always do. If you look at most guys, they go in with their hands up.”
Boone was not sure if the league might tell the 6-foot-7 Judge to do something differently moving forward but said what he did was “not illegal.”
Judge, for one, put the onus on the infielder.
“You can look back at any picture you want of me sliding into second base — that’s always happened,” Judge said of having his hand over his head. “I really don’t know. I feel like there was plenty of time to go around [me]. I’m just doing my job sliding into the base.”
The Brewers — who could have made the whole situation moot by getting one more out before the Yankees scored seven runs in the inning — disagreed.
“It’s hard to say that he wasn’t making an attempt at least purposely to obstruct,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said Sunday. “I don’t think he wanted to get hit by the ball, but I think he was trying to purposely obstruct. That’s my opinion. I don’t know what his intent was. He seems like a wonderful man, but very competitive also.”
The play also called into question the use of the oversized mitts that many players use when running the bases to protect their hands from injury when sliding or diving into bases. MLB regulations allow for players to wear the mitts as long as they do not exceed 12 inches in length, as measured when the pad is lying flat, and that the coverage of the hand and wrist areas is reasonable and worn correctly.
The mitts are not allowed to be worn in a way that lengthens a runner’s reach, though it is unclear how that is judged.
“There’s times we see a guy, it seems like it’s long or he’s not wearing it properly,” Boone said. “I think as long as you’re wearing it properly, you’re all right. So we’ll see.”
On Sunday at least, Judge was glad he was wearing one.
“I was more concerned about how Adames has a great arm and I thought I broke my finger there,” Judge said. “It kind of shocked me a little bit. I didn’t know what happened, I didn’t know where the ball went. Glad everything was all right.”
