NEW YORK — Yankees manager Aaron Boone says he will not stop fighting for his team but acknowledged he might need to be more mindful of not crossing a line with umpires.
“No, I’m not going to change,” Boone said Saturday as he returned from a one-game suspension following his third ejection in the past two weeks. “Even though I have been kicked out of a lot of games, a lot of them I make it through. So maybe just being better at knowing where that line is.”
In handing down the suspension and fine Friday, Michael Hill, Major League Baseball’s senior vice president for on-field operations, said the discipline was “for his recent conduct toward major league umpires, including the actions following his ejection from Thursday night’s game against the Baltimore Orioles.”
“Seemed to be a little bit of a change of direction there, but look, I got kicked out a few times in a week,” Boone said. “I don’t want that. Certainly they don’t want that, but you know just kind of move from it.”
Boone was ejected for an MLB-high fourth time this season when he became infuriated with plate umpire Edwin Moscoso’s strike zone during a 3-1 loss. During the argument in the middle of the third inning, Boone held up four fingers, signaling he believed Moscoso missed four pitches.
Boone also was angry that Moscoso walked away during the argument and first-base umpire Chris Guccione, the crew chief, stood between the two when Boone tried to reengage Moscoso. Boone might have gotten spit on an umpire while arguing.
Boone’s four ejections are one more than the Reds‘ David Bell and the Cardinals‘ Oliver Marmol. Boone led the majors with nine last season, when no other manager had more than five.
On May 15, Boone was thrown out by Clint Vondrak in the eighth inning in Toronto when he argued a 1-1 pitch to Aaron Judge and prolonged the argument. Before exiting to the dugout, Boone took gum out of his mouth and flung it at some of the padding at Rogers Centre.
On Sunday in Cincinnati, he was tossed in the first inning by Emil Jimenez for arguing that Jonathan India should not have been allowed to score on a hit by Spencer Steer that right fielder Jake Bauers nearly caught but allowed to bounce off his glove. Steer’s hit was initially ruled foul by first-base umpire Nestor Ceja, but the call was overturned in a video review.
“A couple of these I don’t necessarily think I should have been tossed, but I’ll be mindful of it and try and stay in games [while] fighting for what I think’s important and keep an edge when I walk out there,” said Boone, who watched Friday’s 5-1 loss to the San Diego Padres from general manager Brian Cashman’s suite.
Boone’s 30 career ejections are sixth among current managers, even though his 761 games entering Saturday were far fewer than those who have more ejections: Bruce Bochy (78 in 4,082 games), Bob Melvin (55 in 2,831), Terry Francona (47 in 3,510), Bud Black (35 in 2,284) and Buck Showalter (34 in 3,283).
Boone is averaging an ejection every 25 games, a significantly faster pace than Bochy and Melvin (52), Black (65), Francona (75) and Showalter (97).