Michael Kay skeptical of Toronto Blue Jays’ stark home-field advantage

There’s home-field advantage, and then there’s the kind of home-field advantage the Houston Astros used to own. And Michael Kay curiously questioned which one the Toronto Blue Jays recently benefited from.

Tuesday night in Toronto, the Blue Jays fouled off 27 pitches against Yankees starter Carlos Rodón to drive up his pitch count during their 5-4 win over New York. And with their ability to foul pitches off on display again Wednesday night, the YES broadcast saw Yankees’ play-by-play voice Michael Kay candidly wondering about the Blue Jays’ two-strike approach, specifically in Toronto.

“You know what’s curious to me, though, John?” Kay asked analyst John Flaherty. “We just saw the Blue Jays in the Bronx, and what we watched was a completely different team than the one we’ve seen here in Toronto. 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, home field advantage, there is something to that. But why would it manifest itself in the ability to foul off tough pitches?”

Kay didn’t outright accuse Toronto of cheating. But it certainly seemed like the Yankees’ play-by-play voice was wondering whether the Blue Jays were being aided in their seemingly newfound ability to foul off tough pitches.

“You can understand it if the next time you see them after you saw them in the Bronx was a month and a half later,” Kay added. “Well, this is a week later and it’s a completely different approach.”

It would seem like a Major League Baseball team should be able to adjust their hitting approach game to game and week to week, but Kay is just asking questions. The same kind of questions many asked about the Jays and the “Man In White” in 2011 , but also ones similar to what Blue Jays broadcasters Dan Shulman and Buck Martinez asked last season when Aaron Judge mysteriously looked toward the Yankees dugout during an at-bat in Toronto that ended in a home run.” After the swift look toward the dugout spawned mass debate over whether Judge was cheating, Kay, however, noted he didn’t blame Shulman or Martinez for discussing Judge’s eye movement on the broadcast.

Fast forward one year, and now it was Kay’s turn to question something that he picked up on during the broadcast. To be clear, Kay never used the word “cheating,” but he definitely led the viewer to wonder whether that’s where he was going. For what it’s worth, the Blue Jays scored 14 runs last week during their three-game series in New York, and 12 runs during their three game series against the Yankees in Toronto.

[ YES Network ]

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