At benchmark, Judge ruling over the game
BALTIMORE — Memorial Day. Your traditional baseball milepost. The time when you no longer can deploy the “It’s still early” dismissal to any of the season’s developments.
So spiritually, at least, these designations take on a little more meaning:
Yankees in first place. Aaron Judge in first place.
The Yankees remain atop the American League East despite their 3-2 loss to the Orioles on Monday afternoon at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. At 29-19, they sit three games up on the Red Sox (27-23) and 3 ¹ /₂ games ahead of Baltimore (2623), which halted a seven-game losing streak with this holiday victory. Who anticipated that these guys could afford to shrug off a holiday loss to one of their top rivals?
They can do so thanks most of all to Judge, their ro oki e dynamo who drilled a laser home run to centerfield in the seventh inning off Orioles starter and winner Dylan Bundy, closing the Yankees’ deficit to 3-2. That homer, No. 17, placed him a length ahead of the Angels’ Mike Trout (now on the disabled list) and Oakland’s Khris Davis for the major league
lead.
“Now I know,” Judge said, smiling, upon joining the club of millions who have learned something from The Post.
Judge also passed Tampa Bay’s Corey Dickerson for the American League lead with 38 runs scored, before the Rays played at Texas on Monday night. At this symbolic juncture, stipulating that so much time remains, Judge leads the AL Rookie of the Year race by miles, and he belongs on any short list for AL Most Valuable Player honors. On a less official level, he must be ahead in “Wow!” moments. His round-tripper Monday, a line drive that just kept going and going, traveled 431 feet at an exit velocity of 112 mph, according to MLB’s Statcast.
“And it’s just a line drive,” Joe Girardi said. “That’s how far his line drives go. They’re different than a lot other people’s line drives. He’s got a ton of power, that’s for sure.”
That it came on a full count, with Judge fouling off a slider by the emerging Bundy to keep the at-bat going before connecting on a 94.2-mph fastball, added to the moment — and to the picture of Judge’s fast and furious development.
“I battled him on a couple of sliders that were away, fouled some stuff off, a couple of checked swings,” Judge said. “Finally, that last one I got over the plate, I was able to put a good swing on it and not miss it.”
Asked whether he knows a screaming liner like that will clear the fence, the seemingly humble Judge paused before saying, “Yeah. You just square it up. Especially in this ballpark. You feel like you’ve got a pretty good chance.”
He didn’t quite square it up in the second, when he sent a Bundy two-seamer hard to O’s right fielder Mark Trumbo. “Just missed it,” Judge said.
And in the ninth, with one out, he came up against Baltimore interim closer Brad Brach with the chance to tie the game … and struck out on four pitches, swinging through a 95.7-mph fastball for strike three.
“I’m trying to get something I can drive. I’m not really sitting on this particular pitch [fastball],” Judge said. “Just something I’m hoping I can handle, and he made three quality pitches on the corner. Sometimes you’ve just got to tip your cap. It happens. You’ve just got to go up there and compete.”
The Yankees fell to 13-2 in games when Judge goes deep. Yet in the game’s rich history of symbols, their mythology quotient notwithstanding, both team and player gained stature because of where we arrived on the calendar.
We’ve got plenty more season to determine whether Judge and the Yankees are for real. So far, however, they have passed every test. Even on this day when they failed to win.