Aaron Boone had every reason to go nuclear on umps in frustrating Yankees loss

By the time the New York Yankees fell to the Seattle Mariners in 11 innings on Tuesday night, Aaron Boone wasn't around to see it. New York's skipper had already been sent back to the clubhouse two innings prior, ejected for arguing balls and strikes after home-plate umpire Mark Wegner rung up Jasson Dominguez on what sure seemed to be a questionable pitch.

Andres Munoz's fastball appeared to be well below Dominguez's knees, but Wegner punched him out anyway, a huge second out of the inning with the go-ahead run in scoring position. Boone, as you can imagine, was none too pleased, out of the dugout and down Wegner's throat almost as soon as he'd finished his strike call.

In reality, though, Boone's reaction was about more than just one bad call. He's earned a reputation as among the more fiery managers in baseball over his time in New York, and on Tuesday night, he had a whole game's worth of reason to be.

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Aaron Boone was right to be furious with umps in Yankees loss to Mariners

It wasn't just the ninth inning. Yankees ace Max Fried — a pitcher with excellent command who typically lives on the edges of the strike zone — had several tough calls go against him, calls that prolonged at-bats and eventually forced him out of the game after just five innings of one-run ball. While Wegner obviously wasn't trying to tilt the outcome of the game, the data makes pretty clear that he did just that: Several of his most egregious calls went against New York in a game that was decided by a single run.

Wegner was largely pretty accurate; his miss rate was right about league average. But an outsized number of those calls happened to go against one team, and at a certain point, it's a manager's job to let the umpire know it. Boone hasn't always been the most popular man in the Bronx, but if there's one thing you can say for him as a manager, it's that his players always want to play hard for him. Stuff like this is a big reason why, especially in defense of a young player like Dominguez who needs to know that his team has his back after striking out in a big spot.