Yankees: Aaron Boone ejected after losing mind on umpires for horrific showing

The New York Yankees got pummeled by the Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday afternoon. Gerrit Cole was unable to hold a 1-0 lead. Nick Nelson was unable to soak up innings. The Yankees’ dead bullpen was forced to slog through all kinds of muck. Rougned Odor, Clint Frazier and Miguel Andújar failed spectacularly with runners on second and third, no outs in the fourth with a chance to change a 2-1 game.

It was the worst of the worst. It made our brains leak out of our ears. Everyone is responsible.

However, if you wanted to toss the umpiring crew out of baseball after this one, we wouldn’t stop you.

Was the home plate umpire the reason the Yankees lost this game? No. Did he make it a hell of a lot easier for Ryan Yarbrough than he did for Gerrit Cole? Absolutely. You will never see a pitching plot like this again.

Check out the called strikes Yarbrough was able to receive all game long off the outside corner (WAY off) vs. what Cole had to work with.

While the ump’s bias was especially obvious against Clint Frazier in the fourth, when he saw five balls, one strike, and was caught looking, this was the case all day long.

Yankees: Gerrit Cole and Ryan Yarbrough’s strike zones were completely different.

Cole didn’t get a single called strike out of the zone — and was squeezed on two strikes called balls at the top of the zone. That’s no way to keep a pitch count low.

Add in Kevin Kiermaier sprinting onto the infield grass (and very much out of the base path) to evade a DJ LeMahieu tag in the fifth, prior to three runs scoring with two outs that inning, and you have yourself a bafflingly biased umpiring performance.

Seriously, we can’t imagine a worse one. If you flipped every single 50-50 call in one direction for a full game, this is what it would look like. Randy Arozarena probably could’ve grabbed a metal bat and used it. This was the Wild West.

Look at this Clint Frazier pitch plot. Look at it. LOOK AT IT!

Once again, hate to be the “umpire guy,” but you can’t be any further from the truth. Clint does have to protect the plate, but can we get one call? One?

With the game finally out of hand in the seventh inning (thanks, Nick Nelson!), Boone finally tried to fire up his guys by letting the man in blue know he’d done a terrible job — hey, is that “Rays” blue?

On the way back from a pitching change, Boone opted to get himself tossed rather than have to watch one more minute of this.

Aaron Boone got ejected after the Rays and umpires teamed up to beat the Yankees.

A little late, Aaron, but a nice job nonetheless.

Hopefully, the Yankees are able to win Cole’s next start to get back over .500 when their freaking ace pitches in 2021.

This frustrating season is getting to us all. After what we watched this week, though, it feels like the Yankees turned a four-game sweep into two accidental wins. They stayed afloat, though on days like this, it’s hard to feel like the entire league’s mechanism isn’t working against you.

Yankees: 4 upcoming free agents who can reopen NYY’s window

These four free agents can reopen the New York Yankees' championship window next offseason -- 'cause this isn't a title team without changes.