Aaron Judge tied A-Rod’s Yankees record for the most homers in a single season by a right-handed batter on Monday, and he needed just one game to surpass it, smacking his 55th in the fourth inning of the Yankees’ eventual 5-4 win in Game 1 of Wednesday’s doubleheader.
And, just like he did on Monday, Alex Rodriguez took to Twitter to show Judge some love:
And if you ask his skipper, it might get a lot, lot harder for Judge to keep upping that total over the Yankees’ last 25 games.
“Sure, I think absolutely,” Aaron Boone said after Game 1, when asked if he foresees more plate appearances where Judge is simply pitched around no matter what. “You try and get him in some spots where there’s no other choice, but I think we’re definitely seeing that.”
Judge saw it twice after the homer on Wednesday, being intentionally walked twice – once with two outs and a man on in the eighth, and once to start the 11th with the automatic runner already on second. The Twins have allowed the third-fewest intentional passes in the AL entering Wednesday, but they weren’t taking the chance of having Judge beat them late in two big spots with runners in scoring position already.
“He’s the man,” Oswaldo Cabrera bluntly said of Judge after Game 1.
The problem? The Yankees have been fairly cold offensively as of late outside of Judge, and with Anthony Rizzo on the IL, Josh Donaldson on paternity leave, and both Giancarlo Stanton and DJ LeMahieu both banged up and only available in an emergency (and DJLM possibly headed to the IL), the Yankees need someone to step up if Judge is avoided.
“Do your job. We need good at-bats, period,” Boone said of that scenario.
Cabrera, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, and Gleyber Torres did that in Game 1, driving in the other four runs for the Yankees (the former two doing so in extra innings), and that was just enough; Judge, Torres, and Cabrera had three of the Yankees’ nine hits, with IKF and Oswald Peraza notching five of the other six.
Perhaps the best synopsis of it all came from Judge himself Monday, after he hit No. 54.
“You gotta show up every day, and no matter who’s behind me, I have to show up and do my best for four or five at-bats,” Judge said. “I like it when I have G and Rizzo and those guys behind me, but if I don’t, so what?”
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