KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Aaron Boone blew a gasket last week when he thought an opposing outfielder trapped a ball, but Boone did not have a challenge left to review it and ultimately got ejected because of it.
A similar play happened in the first inning Tuesday night. This time Boone had his challenge readily available, fired it and opened the floodgates to an offensive outpouring.
The third out of the first inning turned into an RBI single for Ben Rice, doubling the Yankees lead and giving way to a massacre of a 15-1 win over the Royals at Kauffman Stadium.
“Shoutout to Webby back there, working his butt off to make sure we challenge the right plays,” said Rice, referring to coaching assistant/senior director of advance scouting and replay coordinator Brett Weber. “That one proved to be super impactful for us.”
The Yankees led 1-0 with two outs and a man on second base in the top of the first when Rice drilled a sinking liner to right field.
Jac Caglianone had to run in on it and appeared to make a snow-cone, shoestring catch for the final out.
But after using almost all of his 15 allotted seconds, Boone motioned for a challenge, which took a while for the umpires to get the final decision from New York, though it ultimately came in that the ball touched the grass and Rice had himself a run-scoring single.
“I wasn’t sure,” Rice said. “I knew it was going to be a tough play, I put some good top spin on that ball. I thought he caught it, to be honest, but when Booney signaled for the challenge, I was hoping for the best.”
With the extended inning, Amed Rosario followed with a two-run homer for the 4-0 lead on lefty opener Bailey Falter.
The Yankees piled on for the rest of the night, and though the offensive onslaught may have been inevitable given the pitchers the Royals rolled out, the successful challenge served as a spark for a lineup that caught fire.
The play in question last week came Tuesday against the Blue Jays, when the Yankees felt center fielder Daulton Varsho trapped the ball on a diving catch. But Boone had already lost his challenge earlier in the game, so he could not review it and later got tossed arguing the call.
A week later, things went much smoother.
“Obviously netted us a few more runs out of the chute there,” Boone said, “and kind of got us off and started tonight offensively.”
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