A high-up pitch from Will Warren didn’t touch the Baltimore Orioles’ batter in the third, but a hit-by-pitch left New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone frustrated.

The Yankees still sit five games behind the Tampa Bay Rays, but Boone has had another fight on his hands: the umpires. But even after a controversial challenge went against him, the Yankees won. Boone’s frustration was obvious, but Baltimore could not capitalize. Instead, New York answered late and took control of the game. Coming off a rough series in Toronto, the Yankees needed Wednesday’s win to secure the series, and they got it despite another call that left Boone fuming.

“You saw that? Guess we’re gonna see,” Jomboy Media shared the footage of Boone chirping.

Baltimore struck first in the opening inning, but the Yankees answered with two runs in the second and another in the third to take a 3-1 lead. Pete Alonso then homered off Warren in the bottom of the third to cut the gap to 3-2, setting up the first major controversy of the night.

Warren sent an 83 mph sweeper high and inside to Samuel Basallo. The pitch appeared to miss Basallo’s wrist narrowly, yet the home-plate umpire, Ryan Wills, ruled it a hit-by-pitch and awarded him first base. Boone quickly challenged the call, but replay failed to overturn it.

The ruling stood despite footage showing only a razor-thin gap between the ball and Basallo’s arm, leaving Boone visibly stunned in the dugout. Baltimore, however, could not make the call hurt.

Warren escaped the inning without allowing another run and preserved New York’s 3-2 lead.

For the Orioles, there was at least some relief in seeing Basallo avoid any actual contact. He had only just returned from right shoulder inflammation and entered the game hitting .242 with 16 home runs, making his health especially important to the lineup. The disputed ruling gave the Orioles a baserunner.

Baltimore finally pulled even in the sixth when Dylan Beavers homered off Fernando Cruz to make it 3-3. One inning later, the controversy flipped sides.

Alonso launched a towering drive down the left-field line that looked capable of becoming a go-ahead home run, but the third-base umpire, Will Little, ruled it foul. Baltimore challenged, only for replay to leave the call unchanged, and Alonso struck out to end the inning. But this time, the Yankees wasted no time taking advantage.

In the top of the eighth, Cam Sanders loaded the bases with a walk and two hit batters before George Lombard Jr beat out an infield single to put New York ahead 4-3. Jazz Chisholm Jr. then raced home on a wild pitch, stretching the lead to 5-3.

From there, the Yankees shut Baltimore down over the final two innings, with the bullpen finishing the night with five innings of one-run, three-hit relief to seal the 5-3 victory.

The win carried extra weight because of where New York sits in the playoff race.

The Yankees improved to 71-55 and remained five games behind Tampa Bay in the AL East. While New York is in a strong position in the Wild Card race, catching the Rays could mean avoiding the Wild Card Series altogether. That made every swing in Wednesday’s 3-3 game matter, especially with the division race entering its final stretch.

On the other hand, Wednesday marked yet another skirmish between the umpires and the Yankees manager.

Boone had already been ejected four times this season, and for a moment, it looked as if Baltimore could produce his fifth.

Fortunately for New York, that never happened. Still, Wednesday’s flare-up was only the latest chapter in a season filled with Boone’s clashes with officials. To understand how often that frustration has boiled over, it is worth looking back at his four ejections this year.

• The first came on April 16 against the Los Angeles Angels, when Boone was ejected after questioning a balk called on Ryan Yarbrough. Boone said he was simply looking for a clearer explanation, but the argument ended with his 47th career ejection.
• Then the second came on May 19 against the Toronto Blue Jays. Anthony Volpe was ruled out trying to steal second, and the call stood after review. Boone continued arguing after another disputed play later in the game and was tossed for the second time that season.
• The third came on July 8 against the Rays. The Yankees tried to challenge a double-play call, but the umpires ruled that the request came too late. Bench coach Brad Ausmus was ejected first, followed by Boone, who later admitted he should have done a better job of staying in the game.
• Then the fourth came on August 14 in Toronto. Boone objected to a low pitch being called a strike against Luis García Jr and was quickly ejected by home-plate umpire Vic Carapazza. That marked the 50th ejection of Boone’s managerial career, just days before another disputed call had him frustrated again in Baltimore.

But it’s not just the manager who locks horns with the umps in the franchise.

On Tuesday night, his second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr exchanged a few heated words with umpire Ryan Additon. The 2B felt that the ump was blocking his way, so he couldn’t grab a routine grounder and missed the opportunity for a double play to end the inning.

While Boone didn’t say anything during that play and tried to calm Jazz down, this time he couldn’t control his emotions, looking visibly agitated.

But right now, the bigger concern is the Yankees’ dwindling offensive production.

The Yankees offense is missing Aaron Judge a big way

The Yankees’ batting average ranks 29th (.229) and 19th in terms of total runs scored (554). Names like Cody Bellinger and Ben Rice are hitting around .260. And the skipper felt good about it.

“I do feel like [Rice] had a few games in there where he really started to swing the bat well, and wasn’t really getting rewarded for it. He’s been a tick off now,” Boone said recently about blaming Aaron Judge’s absence. “I think the easy thing is to say that the supporting cast is not there. They pitch how they pitch you.”

Judge remains at the center of the problem.

The Yankees captain has been out since May 31 with a rib fracture and has only recently begun throwing as part of his return to baseball activities. There is still no firm date for his return, and mid-September could be the earliest realistic target.

Until then, New York has to find offense without the hitter who had 17 home runs and a .908 OPS before going down. However, Boone did share an update on Aaron Judge’s return.

“Just part of the ramp-up to baseball activity,” Boone told reporters over the weekend. “Hopefully he’ll continue to progress through this week. We’ll see what else gets introduced. … We expect him back, but we’re in the early stages of baseball activity.”

The Yankees are definitely not getting their captain back soon, and it’s on their existing lineup to take the charge. But the stats say otherwise.

For example, Rice had only one hit in 19 at-bats in his last 5 games, entering Wednesday. Although he scored a homer on Wednesday, the entire lineup is yet to come all guns blazing.

The Yankees’ offense has utterly flatlined since the All-Star Break.

They have scored a paltry 3.15 runs per game in the second half, hitting .203, barely over the Mendoza line, with a .626 OPS overall. These numbers churns out a noxious 75 wRC+ figure, second-worst in baseball ahead of only the tanking Los Angeles Angels, who have a 0% probability of making it to the playoffs.

This comes despite the valiant efforts of the Yankees’ pitching staff: their 2.89 ERA since the intermission is head-and-shoulders above their peers.

Right now, the lineup absolutely has to rally behind that strength to avoid the Wild Card series, and enter the postseason.