Pitch to Aaron Judge at your own risk
The Yankees' Aaron Judge smiles in the dugout after he scored against the Pirates during the first inning of an MLB game at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
It’s a question that’s been asked for weeks now without a sufficient answer. Why is Aaron Judge still getting pitches to clobber?
On Wednesday night, the Pirates approached Judge like a team with nothing to lose and zero at stake, as you might expect from a last-place club 38 games below .500. Pittsburgh’s starter Roansy Contreras, a 22-year-old rookie and former Yankees’ prospect, got nicked up by a pair of first-pitch doubles from Judge, but also managed to whiff him on four pitches.
Hey, at least Conteras kept him in the ballpark, and by doing so, elicited groans from the crowd of 46,175. The fans aren’t packing the Bronx this week for doubles, so when Judge’s second two-base hit needed a bounce to get over the leftfield wall, the initial roar changed to a collective sigh.
But that was nothing compared to the crowd’s annoyance with Pirates lefty reliever Eric Stout in the ninth inning. After the Yankees rallied for five runs to get Judge to the plate one last time, Stout never threw him a strike, and each subsequent pitch generated louder boos than the previous one. By ball four, Stout got it worse than Joey Gallo on a three-K night.
“That’s a tricky spot,” manager Aaron Boone said after the Yankees rolled, 14-2, for the two-game sweep. “It’s a competition and he’s got the most dangerous hitter in the box up there.”
By then, it was understandable if the Pirates felt they had reached their limit in strike-throwing for the evening. Judge was fresh off tying Babe Ruth the previous night with No. 60, and had been crushing a home run every 8.8 at-bats. He had homered three times in his previous two games, and smashed five in his last six. No wonder Stout stayed at a safe distance.
“He was making some competitive pitches,” Judge said. “He’s got a great changeup-slider combo, so he’s kind of working those off the edges. I had a plan and stuck to my plan.”
Even as Judge stood only two away from passing Roger Maris, smashing homers at this historic pace, there’s been no evidence that the opposition’s strategy of challenging Judge will change (other than Stout, of course).
More than two weeks ago, I asked the Twins about their curious decisions to challenge Judge during their visit to the Bronx. He torched them for two homers in three games, including a two-run shot late that snapped a tie and proved to be the game-winner. The reply? Despite his ridiculous power, and supernatural season, Judge still is human and can be smartly attacked -- and beaten, if the pitches are executed correctly.
To date, that hasn’t been a winning philosophy against Judge. The pattern is something more to the effect of Judge wearing down a pitcher into making a mistake and he isn’t missing when that happens.
Look what went down Tuesday. Pirates starter Luis Ortiz got Judge to roll over on a 99-mph fastball and 88-mph slider in his first two at-bats, barely dotting the corners of the strike zone each time. In the fifth inning, Ortiz didn’t come anywhere close to the zone with his first three pitches, then walked him on the fifth.
The shocker of the night took place in the sixth inning, when the Yankees loaded the bases for Judge with one out. Judge has 16 intentional walks this season -- second only to the Guardians Jose Ramirez (17) -- but doing so in that instance was taking the respect to another level. In this case, reliever Duane Underwood Jr. roared back from a 3-and-1 count to whiff Judge on a 94-mph cutter.
But Judge was granted a do-over in the ninth against reliever Will Crowe, who got fooled into thinking what the Twins believed -- that he’s only human. Crowe was pitching with a four-run lead, and fell behind 3-and-1 to Judge leading off. The fifth pitch was a 96-mph sinker that was practically put on a tee and Judge hammered it an estimated 430 feet.
There are some situations, with a base open, where it’s obvious to walk Judge, who is lethal inside the fences, too. Not only has he tied Ruth, but Judge leads two of the Triple Crown categories, and his .317 batting average is tied with the Red Sox’s Xander Bogaerts, who arrives Thursday in the Bronx for a four-game series.
It’s a testament to just how dangerous he’s feeling these days. And the intimidating effect that can having on opposing pitchers, who still refuse to give in -- then make a mistake because they’re trying extra hard not to.
“That’s always a real thing,” Boone said Wednesday afternoon. “That’s just the human nature of competition.”
When given a chance, Judge is winning those battles -- loudly. Considering that he’s surrounded by a bunch of low-.200 hitters, there are much easier outs in the Yankees’ lineup, yet pitchers keep stubbornly trying for a story to tell their grandchildren. One that typically doesn’t end the way they hoped it would.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
