How Yankees’ Aaron Boone joked about ejection freak out

Yankees manager Aaron Boone explains crouching behind home plate like a catcher after getting ejected from Friday’s 7-5 win over the Tigers at Yankee Stadium.

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NEW YORK — Catch his drift?

Yankees manager Aaron Boone explained why he pretended to be a catcher behind home plate after he was thrown out of a 7-5 win over the Tigers at Yankee Stadium on Friday night.

He just wanted to make sure plate umpire Nic Lentz understood what he was watching.

Oh, and Boone had some jokes, too.

“I just hadn’t stretched yet tonight so I just wanted to make sure I was good and loose,” Boone said. “I was just, I don’t know. I guess giving my kids something to make fun of me about.”

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Boone said he had been riding Lentz hard before his fifth-inning ejection, the third of his career and first since July 14 in Cleveland.

“I just had some issue with the zone on a couple key pitches that I felt like were missed and I took exception to it and I guess he had heard enough,” Boone said.

Lentz tossed Boone from the dugout. That’s when Boone lost it, walking onto the field, getting into Lentz’s face, squatting behind the plate and then getting in the ump’s face one more time.

Boone appeared to have also touched Lentz with the bill of his cap while the two stood face to face, but Boone said he didn’t think he touched him.

If Boone’s ancillary purpose was to fire up that Yankees, it worked.

Down 3-0, the Yankees responded in the next inning with four runs on three homers — a two-run shot from Brett Gardner and back-to-back solo homers from Aaron Hicks and Miguel Andujar.

“I thought we came in with a good purpose (Friday),” Boone said. “From the get-go, obviously took us a little while to get going, and obviously (Tigers starting pitcher Jordan) Zimmerman had a little bit to do with that. I thought he threw the ball really well. Then Gardy really lit a fire for us there and we were able to put up a big inning and continue to fight after we gave back the lead. So, I don’t know, I just thought the guys really rallied today and played a really clean game overall.”

Brendan Kuty may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @BrendanKutyNJ. Find NJ.com Yankees on Facebook.