The Houston Astros’ comeback attempt on Thursday night was delayed after New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone asked umpires to check outfielder Taylor Trammell’s bat during the bottom of the ninth inning.
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With the Yankees up 8-3, Trammell doubled off reliever David Bednar to give the Astros runners on second and third base with no outs. That’s when Boone approached the umpires about Trammell’s bat. Boone and Houston manager Joe Espada both spoke with home plate umpire Adrian Johnson, who then communicated with the MLB replay office in New York. The bat was then given to an official sat near home plate and the inning resumed.
The Astros would fall short and lose the game 8-4.
After the game, Boone told reporters that something about Trammell’s bat stood out to the Yankees during their three-game series.
“I don’t know if it was just natural or if it was — I don’t know and I don’t want to accuse Taylor,” Boone said. “I’m not saying anything untoward or whatever. We noticed it on video while we were here and we mentioned it to the league and they said, ‘No, that looks like an illegal bat.’ That was it.”
MLB Rule 3.02(a) states that bats used in MLB games must “be a smooth, round stick not more than 2.61 inches in diameter at the thickest part and not more than 42 inches in length.” Trammell remained in the game despite the Yankees’ objection as Rule 3.02(c) reads, “if the umpire discovers that the bat does not conform … until a time during or after which the bat has been used in play, it shall not be grounds for declaring the batter out or ejected from the game.”
Trammell, who entered the game as a pinch-hitter in the seventh inning, went 1-for-5 with 1 RBI and 1 walk in two games against the Yankees.
When asked about the bat, Trammell said that he was told the Yankees believed it was “shaved down too much.”
“To be honest, I have no idea how you shave down a bat,” Trammell said. “I don’t know what it is. My biggest problem is, I feel kind of defensive right now, more so [it is] testing my character of, like, I’m going to willingly do that. I’m kind of lost on that thing. I think if anybody knows me, knows that I’m never going to cheat any turns or anything like that. I have no idea. That’s baffling to me that it was even checked. They didn’t like it. Sorry.”
Trammell spent two weeks with the Yankees early last season playing for Boone, getting into five games and recording a single at-bat. He played most of 2024 with their Triple-A team in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
“My time over there, I had a lot of respect for Boonie. He was straight up with me,” Trammell said. “In that situation, I really don’t understand it. I don’t understand it.”
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