No matter how teams pitch to slugger Aaron Judge, the New York Yankees’ MVP will find a way to get on base.
Judge, who has proven to be the top hitter in Major League Baseball during the early stages of the season with a .406 batting average and eight home runs already, buried the Toronto Blue Jays on Sunday with a home run in the bottom of the 6th.
The Blue Jays have attempted to be careful with Judge, and it’s the right decision. The last thing they want to do is lose a game because of him hitting a home run, but that was somewhat the case on Sunday in the second game of a doubleheader.
Speaking to reporters after the game, John Schneider, the Blue Jay skipper, admitted that he does an incredible job of understanding what’s coming his way at the dish. Judge knows better than anyone that guys want to pitch around him, and that’s what Chris Bassitt attempted to do.
“He does such a good job of understanding that pitchers are going to pitch him carefully,” Schneider said, per Mitch Bannon of The Athletic. “And when they do that, mistakes happen, usually, and he does not miss those.”
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It’s almost impossible to pitch to guys of Judge’s caliber. Not only does he have the ability to hit a home run to every part of the field, but he’s started to improve his offensive game in other ways.
“You have to go away from damage,” Bassitt said of facing Judge. “And I thought that pitch was the pitch away from damage, but obviously it wasn’t.”
Unfortunately for the Blue Jays, they’ll have to deal with him for a very long time. His home run on Sunday was the 39th of his career against the Blue Jays, and he’s posted a 1.070 OPS against them over their last 13 games.
