New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone got ejected during the first inning on Wednesday evening after arguing a questionable call on Yankees outfielder Juan Soto.
Similar to the bizarre end to last week’s Chicago White Sox game, the infield fly rule came into play when Soto got called out at second base for interfering with Los Angeles Angels infielder Zach Neto as the latter was trying to catch a fly ball.
Soto got stuck in an awkward spot while trying to get back to base and collided with Neto as the latter was trying to make the catch for the out. Neto missing the ball sealed the deal for the umpires, who ruled Soto out via interference to give Los Angeles a double play.
Whether or not Soto meant to interfere with the catch ultimately didn’t matter for the officials, which got Boone irate enough to argue the call to the point of an ejection.
Aaron Boone has been ejected for arguing this infield fly rule play where Juan Soto got called out for interference pic.twitter.com/2MTsbzvlbA
— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) May 30, 2024
As this is the second time we’ve seen the MLB infield fly rule applied to a shaky interference call within a week, you have to hope the league can clarify with the umpires what actually constitutes as meaningful interference on a fly ball catch and if accidental contact constitutes an out.
At least for Boone, it must’ve been worth getting tossed out of the game to argue that Soto didn’t mean to do anything wrong.
