TORONTO — A tug-of-war over the pitch clock is the newest element in the Toronto Blue Jays’ rivalry with the New York Yankees, with a strange incident representative of how hard the two teams fight for every inch against one another. 

Centre stage was Jose Caballero, who during the sixth inning of New York’s 8-3 win Sunday, stretched the limits of the rule that batters must be alert to the pitcher once the timer hits eight seconds, earning a warning from umpire Steven Jaschinski for “intentionally delaying.” 

At issue was the way Caballero stepped into the box against Spencer Miles and positioned his body for the pitch, but took his time raising his head to the pitcher. He twice skirted the line before Jaschinski took action and issued the warning, saying if it happened again, he’d be charged a strike.

The Blue Jays were frustrated that more than two minutes of discussion took place before play could resume, and Miles was left idle, unable to throw a pitch, since Caballero, Jaschinski, Yankees manager Aaron Boone, and eventually crew chief John Tumpane were all standing over home plate.

That’s why when Blue Jays manager John Schneider came out to argue an eighth-inning balk call on Jeff Hoffman with Jaschinski, a native of Burlington, Ont., he had more than just that play on his mind.

“Upset about the balk initially and upset about some other things,” explained Schneider, ejected for the second time this season. “It's not why we lost, but Hoff has a good inside move. He's done it quite a bit this year. It's kind of what I was relaying to them and didn't think it was a balk. Thought they could have maybe put as much focus and attention on that play as they did the 10-minute conversation with Jose Caballero, who seems to have a problem with the pitch clock. That's when I got a little bit upset.”

Schneider said he didn’t get any further explanation of the Caballero situation beyond the in-stadium announcement from Jaschinski about the warning, but took issue with the latitude granted to the Yankees infielder.

“There are a lot of major-league players in this league. There seems to be one guy that has an issue with it,” said Schneider. “It sucks that Spencer Miles has to sit........

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