Watch: Yankees' Cole wags finger at Mariners after striking out Caballero

You mess with Gerrit Cole, you get the finger wag.

The New York Yankees ace wasn't pleased with the antics of Seattle Mariners second baseman Jose Caballero during the seventh inning of Tuesday's game at Yankee Stadium. After Cole eventually won the battle, earning an inning-ending strikeout, the five-time All-Star stared Caballero down and eventually wagged his finger at him while walking back to the dugout.

Following the game, Cole divulged that he was wagging his finger at Mariners manager Scott Servais, who wagged his finger at Cole first.

"Their manager had some choice words for me coming off the field, and he was wagging his finger at me, so I wagged my finger at him," Cole said, according to Erik Boland of Newsday.

The Caballero strikeout punctuated a perfect seventh frame for Cole, during which he also sat Cal Raleigh and Mike Ford down via the punchout.

With the pitch clock, hitters are limited from stepping out of the box too much and can only call time once per plate appearance. Caballero pushed that limit in a way that irked Cole, though, walking well out of the box a couple of times. After getting ahead 0-2, Cole even seemed to send a message by airmailing a pitch well above Caballero.

"He didn't like the way I was manipulating the pitch clock, but he just got excited. ... I just had to be ready at eight seconds, and that's what I'm doing," Caballero said, according to Daniel Kremer of MLB.com.

The 32-year-old right-hander earned the win, allowing one run on four hits and one walk while striking out eight over 7 1/3 innings. He now possesses a 2.64 ERA and 3.38 FIP over 99 innings this season, making 16 starts.