Aaron Judge on umpires missing home run call: ‘That’s a fair ball’

TAMPA — If Aaron Judge comes up one home run short of breaking his own AL record this season, Sunday will live in infamy.

The Yankees star appeared to have crushed his eighth home run of the season in the eighth inning Sunday at Steinbrenner Field, a moonshot down the left field line, only for it to be ruled foul by third base umpire Scott Barry.

A crew chief review provided the opportunity to get the call right, but the replay center back in New York ultimately decided that the call on the field stood, robbing Judge of a solo shot.

“The audacity of the call standing is remarkable,” said Aaron Boone, who was ejected one pitch later when Judge was called out on strikes, giving the manager the chance to get his money’s worth on the field, arguing with both home plate umpire Adam Beck and then Barry.

After the game, before meeting with reporters, Boone walked out of the clubhouse and into the video room with coaching assistant Brett Weber, who heads the Yankees’ replay system.

Boone wanted to get another look at the play, which only confirmed his initial feeling.

“It’s a home run,” Boone said. “I get it’s high, towering. But then it goes to replay and I guess they couldn’t find enough conclusive [evidence]. We’ve got to live with the call.”

Judge smiled wistfully when asked about the call after the 4-0 win over the Rays.

“It was a fair ball,” Judge said. “That’s why we got replay. It’s not on the umpire — it’s tough on a situation like this where, at a minor league park, the foul poles aren’t as high. That’s why you have replay, they have every angle. That’s a fair ball.”

Except in this case, replay did not save the day for Judge, who would have had eight homers in his first 22 games of the season (putting him on pace for 59 across 162 games, just shy of his record 62).

“I think everybody was kind of scratching their head,” Judge said. “But nothing I can do about it. They missed it. Just got to move on.”

Cody Bellinger was standing on deck when Judge obliterated the pitch from Eric Orze.

“I did not have a good view of it, but it was probably the furthest ball I’ve ever seen hit,” Bellinger said.

Judge had to settle for going 1-for-4 on the day, extending his on-base streak to 18 games. He is hitting .390 with a 1.202 OPS.

While the called third strike on the 3-2 pitch from Orze may have actually been a strike, Boone had been barking at Beck as early as the second inning after he called two inside pitches strikes on Jasson Domínguez.

Then, combined with the questionable call by Barry, Boone popped off for his first ejection of the year.

“When the third baseman, third base coach, our replay knew, Judge knew — he started into his [home run trot] …” Boone said. “I was hot a little bit early with a couple on JD. But I thought Adam overall did a good job back there. Couple didn’t go our way, that’s part of it.”