JUDGE & YANKS ON RAPID RISE
Rookie slugger’s home run tear as surprising as team’s sprint to top of East
When can we just start calling him Hank-Aaron Judge? Because there is absolutely nothing “so-called” about what this particular Judge is doing right now for the Yankees. All rise, indeed. The Bombers’ most prolific breakout home-run binger since all the way back to Gary Sanchez last August, Judge went deep yet again on Saturday, his third in two games and his record-tying 10th for rookies in April.
His also represented the final blast of the Yankees’ nine home runs in consecutive statement victories over Baltimore — this one by a far more comfortable 12-4 count than the previous night’s walk-off slugfest.
“You kind of wonder what he’s gonna do next,” Joe Girardi said of Judge, who leads the American League in homers entering the final day of April. “What was that his 10th home run? I’m not sure that you really expect 10 home runs from anybody in a month. That’d be 60 a year.
“But we knew he was extremely talented, and I’ve said all along, if he gets the barrel of the bat to the ball, good things are going to happen. That’s what he’s done.” The Yankees improbably are alone in first place in the AL East at 15-7, and Judge figuratively and literally continues to be a massive reason why, joining the lofty likes of Alex Rodriguez (2007), Graig Nettles (1974), Mickey Mantle (1956), Yogi Berra (also 1956, wow) and Babe Ruth (1921) as the only players in franchise history to hit as many as 10 home runs in the team’s first 22 games of a season.
Judge, who also had gone deep on his 25th birthday on Wednesday in Boston, paused and smiled broadly a few times when his home-run pace — including Girardi’s unprompted suggestion of 60 for the season — was laid out to him afterward.
“Anything’s possible, but if we just keep winning, then I’ll take it,” shrugged Judge, before
someone else even half-kiddingly mentioned to him that he currently projects to hit 74 for the season, one more than Barry Bonds’ major-league record in 2001.
“We’ll see what happens,” Judge replied with an even lengthier pause and uncomfortable laughter combination. “You guys are too much, man.”
Come on, it’s impossible for everyone not to get caught up in what’s unfolding with Judge, especially amid the transformation he’s made to be more selective after striking out in half of his 84 at-bats in a lateseason audition in 2016.
And especially after he has tied the MLB rookie mark for April homers with 10, matching Chicago’s Jose Abreu (2014) and Colorado’s Trevor Story (2016).
The creative scoreboard folks at the Stadium even have started using a graphic of a pounding gavel before each of Judge’s at-bats, with the announcer bellowing “All Rise!”
And that quickly has developed into more than just a cute play on the breakout slugger’s surname for the fans to smile at and enjoy.
Judge regularly stops traffic during prodigious batting-practice sessions before games, even among his own teammates and opponents.
But I’d moreover advise everyone to stay in or near their seats rather than hit the restroom or the concession stands — or the amusement park rides and lobster bakes purportedly reserved for the folks in those ritzy below-the-moat seats — whenever Judge is due up, for fear of missing his daily display of monumental — and Monument Park-reaching — power.
On Friday night, of course, Judge established a Statcast record with the hardest hit home run since MLB has kept track of exit velocity with a 119.4 mph laser to left field. It was his second homer of the game against Orioles starter Kevin Gausman as the Yanks stormed back from deficits of 9-1 and 11-4 before pulling out an improbable 14-11 victory on Matt Holliday’s walk-off blast in the 10th.
It then was Holliday, a 14-year big-league veteran, who casually suggested after the game that he believes the monstrous Judge is “probably the most gifted baseball player I think I’ve ever been around.”
Holliday later realized what he’d said and backtracked somewhat to include the historic likes of Bonds and the present-day best player in the game, Mike Trout. He clearly didn’t mean to lay that sort of pressure on Judge, despite also joking that he thinks his 6-7, 280-pound teammate probably could have factored into the first round of this week’s NFL Draft.
“I’m just saying as far as, you look at a guy who can hit a ball in batting practice 550 feet. He can run. He can throw,” Holliday said. “At 6-foot-8, 280 pounds, whatever he weighs, you just don’t see that. I haven’t seen anything like it. It’s fun to watch.
“I think the whole stadium stops when he comes up to bat. That doesn’t happen all the time.”
It seems to be happening more and more as the month has transpired, with Judge not going more than two games without homering since April 14-16.
As for the slugger’s improved selectivity, Girardi noted how impressed he was that Judge followed his two home runs Friday night with a key walk in his next at-bat. He also walked twice and singled on Saturday, reaching base and scoring in all four plate appearances.
“Again, his at-bats were excellent today,” Girardi said. “Patient, hit a line drive to left field, a home run to right-center. He’s swinging extremely well.
“Did I expect 10 home runs? No, I don’t think I would expect that from anyone. Even watching Sanchy do it (last year), I don’t think I’d expect it from him. But it’s been fun to watch, I’ll tell you that.”
All rise, indeed.