Umpires admit to missing call on Aaron Judge slide that ultimately burned the Brewers in loss to Yankees

Aaron Judge raised his hand.

After the game, so did the umpires.

In the sixth inning of Sunday’s game between the New York Yankees and Milwaukee Brewers at American Family Field, a controversial baserunning play by Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge, raising his left arm skyward while engaging in a slide close to the bag, played a key role in a tie game turning into a 15-5 blowout win for the visitors.

Judge’s slide came as Brewers shortstop Willy Adames was making a relay throw to turn a routine double play in the sixth inning. The throw ricocheted directly off of Judge’s “oven mitt” style hand protector, allowing Alex Verdugo to reach first base safely.

The slide was deemed on the field to be a legal base running play by second base umpire Derek Thomas. A conference involving all four umpires subsequently upheld the initial ruling despite arguments from the Brewers.

After the game, however, crew chief Andy Fletcher owned up to it being the incorrect call.

"On the field, we got together and did the best that we could to come up with the correct answer. After looking at it off the field in replay, it appears that the call was missed," Fletcher told a pool reporter. "It should’ve been called interference because it wasn’t a natural part of his slide. It didn’t appear that way to us. We did everything we could to get together and get it right. But after looking at it, it appears that it should’ve been called interference?"

BOX SCORE: Yankees 15, Brewers 5

For his part, Brewers manager Pat Murphy agreed – as did the entirety of his clubhouse after the game.

“I think he was trying to purposely obstruct. It’s my opinion,” Murphy said. “I don’t know what his intent was. He seems like a wonderful man, but very competitive also. So there might’ve been a chance.”

Rule 6.01a(6) of the Major League Baseball rulebook indicates that, "If, in the judgment of the umpire, a base runner willfully and deliberately interferes with a batted ball or a fielder in the act of fielding a batted ball with the obvious intent to break up a double play, the ball is dead. The umpire shall call the runner out for interference and also call out the batter-runner because of the action of his teammate."

Fletcher did not indicate what, specifically, was unnatural about Judge's sliding motion, but it can be inferred it had to do with Judge's left arm, which he raised straight up toward the sky.

Fletcher also confirmed the play is not reviewable.

Judge, whose large 6-foot-7 frame played a role in being able to reach the ball, told reporters he thought he did nothing illegal.

"That's never happened before in my life," Judge said. "I've been sliding like that for years. I was more concerned about how Adames has a great arm. I thought I broke my finger there. There was no concern on my part [about interference]. I've been doing that for years."

Said Adames: "You guys saw the replay. You guys saw a better view than the one I had. So I’m going to leave that one to you guys to judge that one."

It can be risky to try and retrace sequences of plays in innings after they happened, but had Thomas or any other crew members called Judge for interference on the field and the rest of the sixth played out in the way that it did — with Giancarlo Stanton popping out following Verdugo for what would have been the third out — the Yankees would not have scored in the inning.

The Yankees, instead, went on to score seven runs with two outs instead off Uribe and Elvis Peguero, blowing the doors wide open moments after the Brewers had tied it with a three-run home run from Jake Bauers.

“After you see the result of the game, that means that changed the whole game,” Adames said. “That would’ve been two outs with nobody on. They admitted tehy messed up. We mess up sometimes. That’s how it goes. They miss a call. We make a bad throw and we take the blame for the L. You never want to intentionally do something to mess up the game. That’s how it goes sometimes.”

Still, interference or not, the Brewers had a chance to get out of the inning. After Stanton popped out, Uribe walked Anthony Rizzo and then gave up a run-scoring single to Gleyber Torres.

Uribe appeared to limit the damage to one run when threw a pitch that appeared to clip the edge of the strike zone according to the automated zone on a full count to the next batter, Oswaldo Cabrera, but home plate umpire Mike Muchlinski deemed it ball four.

Seconds later, Jose Trevino singled in two runs. Juan Soto and Judge, adding injury to insult, followed by driving in runs to push the Yankees lead to 11-4.

Uribe was more frustrated with himself than the umpiring crew for how the inning transpired.

“They made the call they thought was right,” Uribe said. “I had an opportunity to get out of the inning and didn’t do that. I just have to move forward.”

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Controversial call on slide by Aaron Judge goes against Brewers