The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Judge hits HR off Paxton, returns from stiff neck
NEW YORK — James Paxton and Aaron Judge were back on the field for an instrasquad game, making the New York Yankees look more like themselves eight days before the latest opening day in team history.
Pitching under game conditions for the first time since back surgery five months ago, Paxton gave up a home run on his second pitch to Judge. Two batters later, Paxton allowed a long ball to Giancarlo Stanton.
“It’s a great lineup. I’m glad that it’s ours,” the 31year-old left-hander said. “I’m glad that I’m not facing those guys all the time.”
Judge had not played in an intrasquad game since Thursday because of a stiff neck, another in a series of health concerns for the 2017 AL Rookie of the Year.
Judge estimated his neck motion had improved from 35% to 90%. He homered into the net above Monument Park.
“Good enough to play,” Judge said. “Sometimes you just wake up on the wrong side of bed.”
Judge was limited to 214 games during the past two regular seasons. He had a broken right wrist when hit by a Jakob Junis fastball in 2018, then an oblique strain that sidelined him for two months last year.
He broke a rib making a diving catch last September. That latter injury didn’t keep him out of last year’s playoffs but would have sidelined him during the early part of this season had the schedule not been wiped out by the coronavirus pandemic.
“You break a bone in your ribs from diving, trying to make a play for your pitcher, you get hit in the wrist by a pitcher, it’s just freak things,” Judge said. “I’m going to keep playing this game hard, and that’s all I know.”