Yankees: Did Aaron Judge troll Jose Altuve during his home run trot?

This is the good stuff.

The New York Yankees defeated the Houston Astros on Friday night and started off Saturday with a forceful few innings, which featured Gerrit Cole strikeouts and an Aaron Judge home run. Bombers fans in Houston are having a blast.

This one’s already got a few storylines, too. First, Cole saluted the fans at Minute Maid Park who cheered him on before the game because it was his first time back since signing with the Yankees after the 2019 season. Weird.

Then, we may have had a good old fashioned troll job by Judge, who went deep in the third inning after clobbering a changeup offering from Zack Greinke.

Let’s admire that shot before we dive deeper into the shade he may (or may not have) thrown at Jose Altuve.

Judge obliterated this sucker 419 feet to give his team a 1-0 lead and a much-needed imposing start — something the Yankees have done far too few times in 2021.

Did Yankees slugger Aaron Judge troll Jose Altuve during his home run trot?

OK, now back to the juicy stuff. As Judge made his way to third base, the cameras caught him tugging the inner part of his jersey together.

What was that all about?

In case you don’t recall (you do), Altuve famously made the same gesture when he arrived at home plate after sending the Yankees home in Game 6 of the ALCS with his walk-off home run off Aroldis Chapman. Some lip readers claimed they saw Altuve gesture and say, “No, I got a piece on!” in reference to the speculative rumors suggesting the Astros were wearing buzzers to relay their stolen signs after graduating from the archaic garbage cans.

We’ll never know the truth unless the courts open up the sealed documents, but for now (and most importantly, for fun) we’ll draw the parallel and assume Judge was flaming his counterpart, who fans believe unrightfully beat out the Yankees star in the 2017 MVP race due to the sign-stealing scandal.

https://twitter.com/zachefiene/status/1414012124796440585?s=20

Wait for it though. Since the Astros’ fanbase is the most intriguing assortment of grown adult children, they’ll try to deflect blame and make the joke that Judge was trying to hide a buzzer of his own. Sorry guys, we beat you to it. Bad joke. Nobody else was exposed for cheating except you. Cry some more.

At the moment, Judge just upped the stakes because whether he meant to or not, he sent a message to the Astros (or at least their fan base) that will circulate as trash-talking fodder until these teams meet again in the postseason.

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