Judge’s bat provides big boost
They are the Yankees’ version of an NBA Big Three — Gary Sanchez, Greg Bird and Aaron Judge — a collection of Baby Bombers who are the faces of the future.
But when the Yankees staged their home opener at the Stadium on Monday, the Big Three became a Big One. Sanchez was on the disabled list with a strain of his right brachialis muscle, which is behind the bicep. Bird had a stomach bug and sore ankle. So for the 8-1 win over Tampa Bay, it was the Big Three minus Two.
“I’m still standing. I’m good,” said Judge, who was more than good when he smashed his second homer in as many days, a nodoubt-about-it blast to left in the fourth inning that made it 2-0. “Miss Gary and Bird. Anytime they’re not in the lineup, it’s tough. We just got to keep this thing rolling.”
Smashing homers is one way to do it.
“It was fun to help the lineup any way I can, especially with the way [Michael] Pineda was rolling through the lineup,” Judge said. “I was just trying to get on base.”
And he did. Twice. In addition to his homer, he singled off Rays first baseman Logan Morrison’s glove in the eighth.
“It is important that he continues to contribute,” manager Joe Girardi said of Judge who homered in consecutive games for the first time since his first two MLB efforts, last Aug. 13 and 14, when he also victimized Tampa Bay.
“Being a young hitter is difficult at times. You get off to slow starts or maybe not swinging quite as well as people think you should or high expectations placed on you,” Girardi said. “Any time you are able to contribute, and he has contributed pretty big the last two days, I think it helps to relax a little bit.’’
Last year Judge came up, made that immediate impact. And then became a strikeout machine. In 84 at-bats, he had 42 strikeouts. Those numbers became the story, not his four homers.
But Judge wants to bury that in the past. For now, it’s just looking ahead — although Monday he had to stop and soak in a home-opening atmosphere.
“Felt different,” Judge said of the crowd. “Different energy. It was Opening Day. It was something else. My first [home] Opening Day, too. I could really feel the crowd behind us. They were right in it. That’s all you can ask for.”