TORONTO -- Aaron Judge was batting in the eighth inning on Monday night when Dan Shulman and Buck Martinez, the Blue Jays¡¯ veteran broadcast team on Sportsnet, spotted an oddity on their monitors. A close-up camera view showed the Yankees slugger¡¯s eyes darting to the right; it happened again a few pitches later.

¡°What is that? Where is he looking?¡± Shulman said on the broadcast. ¡°And he did it more than once.¡±

Martinez said that Judge¡¯s eye movements seemed ¡°really, really unusual,¡± and the former big league catcher added that, while he had witnessed players looking back to steal signs, Judge ¡°couldn¡¯t see the catcher with the way he was looking right there.¡±

When Judge pummeled Toronto reliever Jay Jackson¡¯s next pitch for a 462-foot homer to center field, giving the Yankees a 7-0 lead, the on-air commentary sparked a firestorm of online speculation.

So what was it? Conspiracy theorists may be disappointed by the simplicity of Judge¡¯s explanation.

Earlier in the at-bat, manager Aaron Boone had been ejected by home-plate umpire Clint Vondrak, with Boone having barked about Jackson¡¯s low 1-1 slider that was called a strike -- the continuation of a long night of complaints from both dugouts about the strike zone.

Boone engaged in a fiery argument with Vondrak, though the Yankees¡¯ commentary did not cease when Boone exited, whipping a wad of gum toward the visitors' dugout. With the count at 1-2, Judge said he could hear more chatter from his bench as the at-bat continued.

¡°There was a lot of chirping from our dugout, which I didn¡¯t really like in a situation where it¡¯s a 6-0 game and Boonie got tossed,¡± Judge said. ¡°I was trying to save Boonie by calling timeout, like, ¡®Hey, hold up here. Let me work here.¡¯ I was kind of trying to see who was chirping in the dugout; it¡¯s 6-0 and Boonie got tossed. Let¡¯s just go to work. I¡¯m kind of looking, like, ¡®Who¡¯s still talking here?¡¯¡±

Boone said that he was aware of the Sportsnet commentary, having heard Shulman and Martinez on the in-house feed when he returned to his office.

¡°There was some chirping going from our side when I got thrown out, and then it continued,¡± Boone said. ¡°I think a lot of our guys were still letting them hear it. Judgie was looking over like, ¡®I¡¯m hitting here.¡¯¡±

As usual, Judge said he appreciated Boone sticking up for him. Judge¡¯s issue was with the continuing commentary directed at the umpire.

¡°I feel like after a manager does his thing, our pitcher¡¯s still got to go out there and make some pitches,¡± Judge said. ¡°We¡¯ve got to go to work here. I said a couple of things when I was in the dugout, and especially after the game. Hopefully it won¡¯t happen again.¡±

The Blue Jays, speaking at approximately the same time as Judge and the Yankees, found the situation curious.

¡°It¡¯s kind of odd that a hitter would be looking in that direction,¡± Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. ¡°He¡¯s obviously looking in that direction for a reason. I think we¡¯ll dive into that a little bit more tonight and tomorrow, and make sure that we¡¯re doing everything we can to not make ourselves susceptible to tendencies, locations, pitches or anything like that.¡±

Jackson told Sportsnet that he had not experienced anything similar in his career.

"I haven't seen hitters do that before, so I can't say what he was doing,¡± Jackson told Sportsnet. ¡°We'll see what plays out from this. Next time, we'll have a different game plan. ¡­ If he knew it was coming, I'm glad he didn't miss it.¡±