ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — After a strike-’em-out, throw-’em-out double play, the Yankees’ dugout was hit with a throw-’em-out, throw-’em-out from home plate umpire Doug Eddings.
Bench coach Brad Ausmus got the hook first, after the Yankees tried to challenge whether José Caballero was safe at second base in the top of the sixth but were too late, and then Aaron Boone — not knowing who had been tossed from the dugout — went out to argue with Eddings and earned an ejection himself, which he later regretted.
“I should’ve kept myself in the game there,” Boone said after a 3-0 loss to the Rays on Wednesday night at Tropicana Field. “That’s not a good time to go out there and get personal with it, just based on some things with this [umpiring] crew. I got to do a better job in that spot of staying in the game.”
Aaron Boone (left) gets ejected by home plate umpire Doug Eddings during the sixth inning of the Yankees’ 3-0 loss to the Rays on July 8, 2026 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla. AP
Boone had been frustrated earlier in the series when home plate umpire Emil Jimenez did not allow Jasson Domínguez to challenge a pitch Monday because he thought he was influenced by the Yankees dugout — a repeat of the same scenario last month at Yankee Stadium with Jimenez behind the plate.
Then Wednesday, after Caballero was thrown out trying to steal second, Boone held up his hand from the dugout as Ausmus got on the phone awaiting word on whether the Yankees should challenge.
But by the time Ausmus signaled to Boone and Boone signaled to Eddings that they wanted a review, they appeared to have run out of time.
Ausmus began arguing from the dugout and quickly got tossed for the first time this season before Boone went out and argued more, leading to his third ejection of the year.
“Once it’s Brad being thrown out, I got to stay in the game absolutely,” Boone said.
The Yankees will throw a bullpen game Thursday instead of bringing up a spot starter like Elmer Rodríguez. Lefty Ryan Yarbrough will likely be counted on for a bulk of the innings.
Caballero struck out four times in Tuesday’s game, including one in which he dropped his bat on purpose before a called third strike passed the plate.
He explained Wednesday that he did it because he had been chasing 3-2 breaking balls out of the zone too often recently, and after fouling off a fastball, he was convinced he was going to get something offspeed out of the zone from Rays lefty Ian Seymour.
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“I [sold] out with it,” Caballero said. “It’s either that or chase again and I’d be more pissed [at] myself if I chase again. … I was selling out for a ball, that’s what I can tell you. I was taking my chances for him to throw a ball.”
Caballero said there were other at-bats recently in which he told himself not to swing but still did, so he decided to drop his bat to ensure he would not swing. It backfired, as he watched a fastball clip the bottom of the zone for strike three.
“I think there’s some moxie to what he did,” Boone said. “Obviously didn’t work out. So it ends up, especially in the context of us struggling this week and the last couple weeks offensively and having a bunch of punch-outs, I get how that looks. But there’s also some gamesmanship that he does things like that really intuitively and well sometimes.”
