JUDGEMENT DAY!
Aaron blasts second home run of season as Baby Bomber gets off to hot start
TWO GAMES without Gary Sanchez, two home runs from Aaron Judge.
The Yankees will surely miss their power-hitting catcher while he sits the next four weeks, but Judge, another member of the current crop of young Bombers, can provide plenty of pop too.
Judge, facing Alex Cobb in the fourth inning of Monday’s 8-1 win over the Rays in the Bronx, smacked a breaking ball sky-high and into the left-field stands. At the time, that put the Yankees ahead 2-0.
“My first at-bat I think the second pitch he threw me was kind of a hanging curveball and I didn’t swing and those are the ones I’ve got to go after,” Judge said. “So that second at-bat I fought off a couple pitches and finally got to that hanging curveball, I just tried to take a good swing on it and put the barrel on it.”
With Sanchez expected to be down for about a month, it will be especially important for the Yankees to get production out of someone like Judge. On Monday the team was without another youngster, Greg Bird, who was battling sickness and sat the game out.
Joe Girardi said that Judge flashing power early could help him going forward.
“Well I think it’s important that he continues to contribute because being a young player can be difficult when you get off to slow starts or maybe you’re not swinging quite as well as people think you should,” Girardi said. “There are a lot of expectations placed on you, but anytime you’re able to contribute, and he’s contributed pretty big the last two days, I think it helps them relax a little bit.”
Judge partially agreed that he might have been more relaxed on Monday after hitting a solo shot in the eighth inning of Sunday’s win.
“A little bit but I was honestly just feeding off of Big Mike,” Judge said.
Though Judge, who stands at imposing 6-7, has long been one of the Yankees’ top prospects, he struggled in his 27 games in the big leagues last year. Most notably he struck out a preposterous 44.2% of the time, which, in a tiny sample, he has so far curbed in this first week of the season. He hit .179/.263/.345 in 95 plate appearances in 2016.
While he has just four hits in 23 atbats in 2017, two of them have been bombs.
Judge said he doesn’t feel any extra pressure with Sanchez hurt.
“No we’ve always been a team. Everyone’s pulling the same rope,” he said.