Another check-swing call. Another controversy. And manager Aaron Boone proved he is not afraid of getting tossed from a game while arguing his case. On Wednesday night, the New York Yankees capped their series in Anaheim with a win. However, they needed 10 innings to take the series finale from the Los Angeles Angels, and a controversial umpiring call brought Boone’s temper to a boil during the extras.

Boone tasked the newly signed Michael Fulmer with protecting the Yankees’ lead in the bottom of the 10th. Batting leadoff, Grissom was down 1-2 in the count against Fulmer. On his fifth pitch, a 91-mph four-seamer, Grissom swung. The Yankees expected it to be strike three, but first-base umpire Junior Valentine ruled it a check swing instead. Soon enough, the agitated manager charged onto the field to protest the call

“Aaron Boone has been ejected in the 10th inning for arguing a checked-swing call,” Foul Territory wrote on X.

Given how far Grissom swung, the broadcasters were also surprised by the ruling. Boone, too, took a shot at the call postgame.

“Well, if you want to call that a check swing,” Boone remarked, per the New York Post.

But as long as MLB leaves check-swing calls to the umpire’s discretion, such controversies are inevitable, and Aaron Boone has been a victim of controversial umpiring before.

This August, Boone recorded his 50th career ejection while protesting a strike call against Luis Garcia Jr. as he faced Toronto Blue Jays right-hander Shane Bieber. The pitch appeared to be low, but umpire Vic Carapazza called it a strike and tossed Boone for arguing.

Following the call, the Yankees dugout expressed its frustration, and Carapazza turned to Boone, asking what he had said. After Boone answered, he was promptly ejected, and the manager went to the field for a few minutes of heated confrontation before retreating.

“I actually watched the replay, and I just said, ‘It’s low,’” Boone later told MLB.com.

Apparently, that was enough to trigger Carapazza last month.

Coming back to Wednesday, before he left the field, Boone did not forget to hold the home plate umpire, Dillon Wilson, accountable. While walking toward the dugout, he pointed straight at Wilson and appeared to say that Wilson should have been the one to make the call.

But Boone was not the only one ejected during the series finale. Pitching coach Matt Blake was also tossed.

Following their exit, Moises Ballesteros hit a two-run homer to chip away at the Yankees’ lead, but Fulmer did not slip again, and the Yankees won 6-3.

The Yankees will face off against the San Diego Padres next. But before that, they have an update on their rookie shortstop.

George Lombard Jr. progresses toward return

The Yankees kept him off the IL after an MRI revealed no structural damage and only inflammation in George Lombard Jr.’s right knee. The rookie shortstop tweaked his knee last Saturday on a check swing while batting against the Boston Red Sox.

While he avoided an IL stint, Lombard Jr. missed his fourth game in a row on Wednesday. However, he was running in the outfield, taking agility drills, and catching ground balls pregame. The Yankees are expecting him to join the lineup on Friday. They will begin a three-game series against the San Diego Padres.

“I don’t want to put the cart before the horse … but it is trending and looking like that is going to be the case,” Boone told the New York Post.

In Lombard Jr.’s absence, Jose Caballero had taken over shortstop for the last four games, but the infield might look different in San Diego as Lombard Jr. returns. The 21-year-old has also shared an update about his injury.

“It’s been progressing every day,” Lombard said, per the New York Post. “There was just a little bit of inflammation in there, so it was just random moves [where I could feel it].”

The Yankees (80-60) have a day off on Thursday. They will enter the Padres series 3.5 games behind the AL East leaders, the Tampa Bay Rays (83-56).