Judge rules Bronx with absolute power
KNEEL before Aaron Judge, your new ruler. Darling of The Bronx. King of the exit velocity. Rookie of the Year. The Yankees registered their biggest win of their highly encouraging season on Friday, erasing an eight-run deficit to overpower the Orioles, 14-11 at Yankee Stadium, when veteran Matt Holliday slammed a three-run, 10th-inning homer off Jayson Aquino. That pulled the Yankees (14-7) into a tie with Baltimore (14-7) atop the American League East. This one required a village’s worth of work, with the Yankees blasting five home runs — special props to Starlin Castro for tying the game with a two-run shot in the ninth — and three relievers teaming for 3 2/3 shutout innings after CC Sabathia and Bryan Mitchell put their teammates in a hole. Afterwards, though, even Holliday couldn’t stop marveling over Judge, the behemoth who went deep twice to set a record of sorts in the process and has quickly established himself as must-see baseball. “He’s probably the most gifted baseball player I’ve ever been around,” said Holliday, 37, who made his major league debut in 2004. By ripping homer number eight and nine for the season, Judge kept pace with Oakland’s Khris Davis (who homered twice against the Astros in Houston) atop the AL. His first round-tripper, a laser to the Orioles’ bullpen in left-center field in the fifth inning, broke Baltimore starter Kevin Gausman’s shutout. His second one, a Mike Piazzaesque liner to center field in the sixth that kept going and going, brought the Yankees within 9-4, and as Joe Girardi said: “I thought Judge’s second home run kind of gave us a feeling, here we go. … It kind of triggered something.” Oh, it triggered something, all right. With an exit velocity of 119.4 mph, as per Statcast, it set a record for the hardest-hit home run since Major League Baseball started tracking these in 2015. It surpassed the old mark of 119.2 established by Miami’s resident beast Giancarlo Stanton.
“Not really, to be honest,” Judge said, when asked whether such a record meant anything to him. “I was just glad to get some runs on the board.”
On the other hand, the 25-year-old smiled widely when informed of Holliday’s praise.
“That’s amazing,” Judge said. “I look up to Holliday. Watching his career, how he’s played, what he’s done for this game, on an off the field, he’s been pretty amazing. To hear that from someone like him, that’s pretty awesome.”
Actually, Holliday, after digesting his comment, slightly walked it back — he mentioned Barry Bonds and Mike Trout as particularly gifted players he has seen — while still heaping praise upon his young teammate.
“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 sure doesn’t. In Judge, listed as 6-foot-7 and 282 pounds in the team’s media guide, the Yankees have themselves a commodity who ranks as all the more valuable in today’s age of short attention spans. The announced crowd of 36,912 exploded upon Judge’s second homer … and the Yankees still trailed by five runs.
Judge said he doesn’t pay attention the buzz he creates simply by coming to bat.
“I’m locked in,” he said. “I’m just focused on my plan and what I’m going to do. I try to focus on that and tune everything else out.” Everyone else will tune in. “As far as raw talent goes, the dude is massive,” Holliday said. “He’s athletic. He can play defense and run the bases. And he’s a fantastic kid. I’m a huge fan. I love watching him play. The sky’s the limit.”
The Yankees, as an entity, carry the same vibe. Thanks most of all to their gentle giant who regards no adversity as insurmountable.