Michael Kay all but accuses Blue Jays of cheating after Rogers Centre renovations

One year later, the Yankees' announcers finally have an answer for the ridiculousness put forth by the Jays pregame show last season, when Toronto wasted two days insinuating Aaron Judge had taken an ill-gotten peek at the dugout (and asked for him to be drilled in the head).

Midway through the third inning of Wednesday afternoon's game -- the sleepy Yankees offense, already down 2-0 to the battlin' Blue Jays, was trying to avert a sweep -- Kay took a wild swing and brought an opinion he probably should've kept off-air onto the broadcast.

Notably, Toronto has had a remarkable two-strike approach in this particular series, tiring out Carlos Rodón on Wednesday night prior to the completion of five full innings by fouling off a number of hard fastballs (the lefty's velocity was up, not down, but he still fell victim to the Jays). In total, they fouled off 27 pitches. Rodón abandoned his slider, for whatever reason, which likely made his fastball even easier to cue up. Nevertheless...

Kay's issue, of course, is that he didn't see any of this upgraded discipline from the Jays just 10 days prior, when they were playing at Yankee Stadium. In that series, Toronto looked like the same devil-may-care offense that has flamed out of the postseason two straight years.

"We've seen it for two days," John Flaherty began. "They've been grinding through at-bats."

"You know what's curious to me, though, John? We just saw the Blue Jays in the Bronx, and what we watched was a completely different team than the one we've seen in Toronto.," Kay began, innocently enough. "The one in New York did not foul off the amount of pitches that this team does. It's like it's a different team in this ballpark."

"Now, homefield advantage, there is something to that, but why would it manifest itself in the ability to foul off tough pitches?" Kay claimed, as part of an extended rant about why Toronto's offense would have double the discipline at home that they seemed to display in the Bronx. He continued that if a month had gone by, he might understand, but this 180 over the course of a week felt illogical to him.

Essentially, he left it up to the listener to fill in the missing word -- cheating -- even going so far as to note that Toronto's early roadtrip was based around making sure the Rogers Centre's renovations were ready for the team's arrival.

Yankees announcer Michael Kay implies Blue Jays are cheating at home with revamped approach

This is the kind of thing you might remark to your buddy in a fit of anger at the Yankees' ineffectiveness. It's not, typically, a thing that ends up said into a microphone.

For all of us in the Bronx who got a hearty laugh over all of Toronto's excuses in the "Fat Boy" series of May 2023, it's going to be tough to justify going to the mat for Kay's insinuations here. He's also throwing stones from within a glass stadium; the Yankees have been accused of home chicanery plenty in recent years, though nothing post-Apple Watch has ever been substantiated.

There's really no other way to interpret the comments. He was suspicious of the Blue Jays' rapid makeover, he noted that the newfound relentlessness/ability to make pitchers work showed up at home, and he left it at that.

We'd recommend you let him die on this hill instead of taking up his cause.

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