TORONTO — Yankees catchers are among the best in the game at stealing strikes and framing pitches.
But the potential downside of that skill came back to bite them Tuesday for a second straight game as J.C. Escarra’s catcher’s interference loomed large in a 12-5 loss to the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre.
With runners on first and second and one out in a tie game in the bottom of the seventh, Luke Weaver thought he had a called third strike on Addison Barger. But as the pinch hitter checked his swing on a full count, his bat hit Escarra’s glove, which led the Blue Jays to call for a challenge that they won to load the bases in what became a five-run rally.
“He wasn’t going to swing, but at the end of the day, I shouldn’t have been too close like that,” Escarra said. “Going forward, I’ve really got to make it a priority to not get too deep in there.”
To help frame pitches, Escarra — starting a second straight game for Austin Wells as he recovered from invasive testing for a lack of circulation in his finger — gets close to the plate and tries to catch the ball before it gets too deep.
J.C. Escarra of the New York Yankees reaches for a wild pitch during the sixth inning of their MLB game against the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre on June 30, 2025Getty Images
But that can sometimes lead to interfering with swings, which he did on Tuesday for the third time this season, tying him for the major league lead.
“We’re incredibly diligent on trying to eliminate that as much as possible,” manager Aaron Boone said. “It is something we lean into every hitter — who are we vulnerable with, who are we not — and we do that accordingly with our catchers. … It’s something we continue to lean into and try to eliminate as much as we can while also trying to leverage the strike zone as much as we can.”
That said, the Yankees had something of a bone to pick on this one because it came on a check swing. Barger was not actually offering on the pitch, but hit Escarra’s glove, awarding him first base instead of a strikeout looking.
“Should probably be something looked into where a check swing can’t get you beat like that,” Boone said.
Weaver called it a “confusing one” because he did not see it in real time and thought he had a big second out
Toronto Blue Jays’ Vladimir Guerrero Jr. douses teammate George Springer with water after their victory over the New York Yankees in a baseball game in Toronto on Tuesday, July 1, 2025.AP
“It’s pretty devastating, honestly,” Weaver said. “I feel like that’s a really unfortunate part of our game and I don’t personally think that belongs in our game. I think there should be some type of discretion to it.
“I understand that there are moments where it’s very egregious and they hit the ball on a full swing. You feel like you earned something there and it was taken from you. That’s out of my control at that point. But just a real silly thing to happen.”
