In the latest installment of the Aaron Judge cheating soap opera, Yankees starter Domingo Germán was ejected after a foreign substance check.
"What is going on in this game?" is what the casual MLB viewer would very much like to know.
At the bottom of the fourth inning in the second game of the New York Yankees–Toronto Blue Jays series, Yankees pitcher Domingo Germán was set to take the mound. Four umpires swarmed him to check him for foreign substances, and lo and behold, they found something.
Germán was ejected following the inspection, completing three innings and retiring all nine batters he faced before home plate umpire James Hoyer threw him out; Ian Hamilton came out of the bullpen to replace him.
Since all sticky-substance ejections come with an automatic 10-game suspension, the Yankees' pitching rotation now takes a tough blow to the gut.
Yankees' Domingo Germán ejected for sticky stuff at the worst possible time
To make matters worse, Germán's ejection came smack-dab in the middle of Aaron Judge's alleged cheating scandal, in which the Blue Jays insinuated Judge was looking for some illegal signal before he homered in Game 1.
Out of all the games Germán could have used that sticky substance, he chooses this one? Also, this was the same umpiring crew as the one that checked out Germán's hand in mid-April at Yankee Stadium. That game, Germán was asked to remove rosin but was allowed to stay in the game (the level of stickiness was not deemed excessive).
Germán's undeniable cheating and poor timing throws red paint all over the Yankees' claim of honorable character in the Judge incident, and his ejection will only stoke the Blue Jays' fire for the rest of the series.
Prior to Germán's ejection, the Yankees and Blue Jays coaches got into a shouting match over proper positioning in the coaching box, and prior to that, Blue Jays fans were booing Aaron Judge whenever he stepped up to the plate.
The game is currently tied, 3-3, at the bottom of the sixth. Get ready for a doozy of a series.
