Blue Jays suspicious of Aaron Judge's home run after his 'odd' plate appearance

Monday’s contest between the Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees featured a few unusual scenes in a 7-4 winning effort for the Bronx Bombers.

First, of course, was another poor outing from Alek Manoah, who surrendered five runs on six hits and a career-high seven walks before departing after four innings. But the right-hander’s disappointing outing wasn’t the strangest takeaway from this AL East showdown.

Instead, Yankees slugger Aaron Judge’s fifth plate appearance drew the most attention and controversy. Last season’s AL MVP appeared distracted by something before he connected on a 462-foot home run — his second of the game — off Blue Jays reliever Jay Jackson.

Just as Jackson began his windup, Judge’s eyes drifted toward the Yankees’ dugout as if someone were trying to get his attention.

Sportsnet’s broadcast was the first to notice this odd sequence, speculating that New York’s bench might've relayed signs or location to Judge. It's also possible that Jackson was tipping his pitches in the eighth inning.

Either way, No. 99 got every bit of Jackson’s pitch, blasting his longest home run of the season and tying the eighth-farthest of his career.

Judge was asked about his final at-bat after the game and said it had nothing to do with sign stealing, but he wanted to see which of his teammates was arguing with home plate umpire Clint Vondrak after Yankees manager Aaron Boone was ejected earlier that inning, adding that he wasn't a fan of how some guys in the dugout were giving it to the umps.

"I said a couple things to some guys in the dugout and especially after the game. Hopefully it won't happen again," Judge said postgame.

The Blue Jays, meanwhile, plan to investigate the incident themselves to determine what transpired before Judge’s home run. In their eyes, things played out a little too suspiciously. Manager John Schneider said he will ensure his team is protected moving forward from any shenanigans that would leave his pitchers susceptible to tendencies, pitch locations and things like that.

"It’s kind of odd that a hitter would be looking in that direction. He’s obviously looking in that direction for a reason," Schneider said.

Jackson echoed a similar sentiment after the game but refrained from making any allegations. Still, the veteran righty intends to shake up his game plan the next time he faces Judge.

"I haven't seen hitters do that before, so I can't say what he was doing ... we'll see what plays out from this. Next time, we'll have a different game plan," Jackson told reporters after the game.

"I'm not going to say anything about another organization. For him to be peeking that amount of time — it seemed like it wasn't just a glance, then kinda readjusting your eyes to get back on the pitcher."

New York took the series opener of this four-game set, which continues Tuesday, when Domingo Germán and Kevin Gausman will square off. After the series concludes Thursday, the teams won't see each other until September.