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Umpire Strikes Out Aaron Judge on Three Straight Pitches Outside the Strike Zone

Stephen Douglas

Aaron Boone reacting to umpire Lance Barrett’s work behind the plate.
Aaron Boone reacting to umpire Lance Barrett’s work behind the plate. / @TalkinYanks
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Aaron Judge did not receive a favorable strike zone in his first at-bat against Red Sox pitcher Brayan Bello on Friday night. Judge, hitting third in the order for the Yankees' second game of a weekend series against Boston, did not swing at any of the four pitches he saw in the at-bat and none of them were in the zone.

Rather than give Judge a walk, home plate umpire Lance Barrett sent him back to the dugout without having seen so much as a single strike.

Looking at the recap of the at-bat, none of the calls were that far outside the zone and any one of them on their own wasn't that egregious.

Aaron Judge strike zone
Aaron Judge was punched out on three questionable strike calls. / MLB.com

But when you call all three of them strikes back-to-back-to-back, it's a bad look. And more importantly, people notice.

This would not be the first time that the Yankees have disagreed with Barrett behind the dish.

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Stephen Douglas
STEPHEN DOUGLAS

Stephen Douglas is a senior writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He has worked in media since 2008 and now casts a wide net with coverage across all sports. Douglas spent more than a decade with The Big Lead and previously wrote for Uproxx and The Sporting News. He has three children, two degrees and one now unverified Twitter account.

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