"He takes pride in his work" - Aaron Judge speaks on Gleyber Torres incident, Yankees captain backs infielder with strong words 

While Gleyber Torres received criticism from all corners for his baserunning in Friday night's 8-5 loss against the Toronto Blue Jays, New York Yankees captain Aaron Judge showed his support for his teammate.

Manager Aaron Boone pulled out Torres in the fourth inning touting it as a "learning moment," after the infielder's baserunning cost the Bronx Bombers a potential run in the second innings. Despite that, the captain had strong words of support for him:

“If I know Gleyber, something like this ain’t going to happen again. He takes pride in his work and his craft. He’s definitely not happy about what happened. I bet you the rest of his career, something like this ain’t going to happen again,” Judge said via Bryan Hoch's post on X/Twitter.

On Friday, Aaron Judge extended his major league home run lead by smashing a two-run blast in the first innings against Kevin Gausman. The 477 ft. homer – which was his 40th dinger of the season – was also the third largest of his career.

Despite his home run outing, the Yankees eventually lost 8-5 in the end. Starting pitcher Marcus Stroman gave up seven earned runs in just 2.2 innings in the loss.

What happened with Gleyber Torres that led him to being pulled out by Aaron Boone?

During the second innings against Kevin Gausman, Torres struck a liner to left field that barely missed being called a home run. Torres was subsequently caught watching the ball, resulting in him only being able to reach first base on what could have been an easy double if he had started running right from the moment he hit the ball.

This was followed by a two-out double to left field by Anthony Volpe. Rushing in from first and with the chance to tie the game, third base coach Luis Rojas gave the green light to hustle Torres to go for the home plate. However, he was caught short at the home plate, ending the innings for the New York Yankees.

Though Torres played second base in the following inning, Boone replaced him with Oswaldo Cabrera in the fourth. Moreover, Torres was spotted having a serious discussion with Boone in the dugout during the game.

However, after the game, he acknowledged his mistake during a post-game interaction:

“I feel very sorry for what I did tonight, especially for the fans and to my teammates. I’m a human being. I made an error,” Torres said.

The Yankees play the Blue Jays again on Saturday for the second set of their three-game series at Yankee Stadium.