The New York Yankees didn’t come all the way to Toronto to play it all safe. They are fresh off sweeping the Red Sox in the Wild Card round. They marched into Rogers Center with their eyes on the bigger prize—the World Series. The same records, the same hunger—the only difference is that the Jays have the tiebreaker, and now the Yankees have to take it from them.

Luis Gil from their side, Kevin Gausman throwing for the Toronto Blue Jays—it all felt like a heavyweight bout. But then boom, the drama just unravelled in the very first inning itself.

Trent Grisham steps up and makes contact, and it looks like the ball clips his foot before rolling fair. That should have been an easy foul call, right? Everyone saw it too. But the umps? Nope. They ruled it fair and sent Grisham packing with an out, and just like that, the tension hit another level.

Social media has lit up, demanding justice, pointing out how these mistakes can become grave. For Trent Grisham, nicknamed Big Sleep by his teammates, there was not much argument, but the frustration was honestly palpable. Later, Aaron Judge did try to flip the script with a hard single to the left. But the inning sputtered out with Bellinger flying out and Rice striking out swinging. The opportunity was gone. Yankee fans are hence hurt, and they let their emotions out about the umpire’s call.

New York Yankees fans are tired of the guesswork ump calls

One user said, “Can you not review that?” And honestly, it’s a fair question. Because by rule, plays like that are not reviewable, even when the evidence is pretty darn obvious. So the Yankees had to eat it, and while the missed call happened early, it stung them because this wasn’t the first time that in this season an umpire blunder had left them in frustration. It has happened plenty of times, and players and even Aaron Boone have been evicted plenty of times for voicing their opinion.

“Unbelievable?” one fan said, and it’s easy to see why they are frustrated. The Yankees have faced their fair share of umpiring headaches recently. Just playing against the Astros, Brian Walsh’s strike zone frustrations led to ejections for Boone and Williams in an 8-7 loss. Then, in the series finale, Walsh ruled that Ryan McMahon didn’t catch a ball on the fly, and that led to more rage! Hence, Yankee fans are demanding fair play.

Taking a dig, a user said, “And Blue Jays fans think the MLB is rigging it for us.” Now this is in relation to the incident that happened with George Springer. He made headlines when an umpire ruled his bases-loaded hit in the second inning foul. Although replays showed it was fair. Springer seems to have muttered, “If they want New York to win, just tell me and give it to them already,” hinting at favoritism for the Yankees. And here, fans are clearly laughing that narrative off, just like how Michael Kay also did.

Frustrated, a user said, “How is this not reviewable???” And well, that’s what the entire Bronx would want to know. Plus, the frustration also reached a tipping point, given that right after that blunder, Toronto rubbed more salt in with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. launching his two-out homer off Girl. His first postseason bomb, of course, came against the Yankees. Plus, in the next inning, he leaped to rob McMahon and doubled off Chisholm to end a rally!

One person exclaimed, “I love watching baseball. In 2025, I can’t wait for 2026 when they replace the umpires with TeslaBots.” Honestly, 2025 had everyone screaming on the TV more times than one can count with all those blown calls. However, the robot umpires’ framework is approved and ready to go, and it’s going to bring that much-needed fairness to the game. At the very least, the calls will be backed up by tech and not guesswork. Baseball, for sure, looks smart and high-tech.