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It didn’t take long for Aaron Boone’s frustrations with home-plate umpire Derek Thomas to boil over Sunday.
After Ryan McMahon took a pitch in the third inning that touched the lower part of the zone and that Thomas called a strike, Boone said enough to get ejected for an MLB-leading fifth time this season, snapping a tie with Red Sox manager Alex Cora.
Boone then proceeded to hop out of the Yankees dugout and continue arguing with Thomas — who said he’d already heard enough complaining from Boone — even as crew chief Jordan Baker stepped between the pair and kept shuffling to block Boone’s path to Thomas.
“You need to fix it,” Boone said, according to YES Network audio of the exchange. “You f–king need to fix it.”
Trent Grisham, Ben Rice and Aaron Judge all had pitches outside the zone — per MLB.com’s locations — called as strikes in the first inning against Astros starter Jason Alexander, who held the Yankees hitless through three innings.
Alexander’s sinker to McMahon then scraped the bottom portion of the zone two frames later.
Still, despite the calls that Thomas missed in the eyes of Boone, the Yankees offense struggled to generate any rhythm again Sunday, with Ben Rice’s one-out walk in the opening inning, Austin Wells’ one-out walk in the third and Aaron Judge’s leadoff walk in the fourth marking their lone baserunners as they attempted to secure just their third win in the last nine games.
Houston took an early lead on Jose Altuve’s homer and added another run in the third inning when Christian Walker launched an RBI double to left.
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