When the Yankees hosted the Oakland A’s in the Bronx last night in the third game of a four-game series, 2022 American League MVP Aaron Judge, one of the best baseball players in the world, carried atypical numbers to the plate that were more in line with those of a deer in the headlights rookie.
Before the evening’s first pitch, the Yankees center fielder was batting a disquieting .180 in 89 at-bats in 24 games with three home runs, 11 RBI, and a team-high 31 strikeouts. Somewhat surprisingly, he was booed by the fans at Yankee Stadium last Saturday while going 0-4 with four strikeouts, including making the game’s next-to-last out, in his team’s 2-0, 10-inning loss to the Tampa Bay Rays.
Judge empathized with the fans’ reaction. “I’ve heard worse and I’d probably be doing the same thing in their situation,” he acknowledged.
The five-time All-Star expressed a broader view of the season and his current batting troubles. “I’ve had seasons where I’ve started off worse than this through my career,” he said. “I’ve had seasons where you start off hot and you always hit a rough patch where you hit about .150 in the whole month but it kind of gets mixed in there with the other 500 at-bats. It’s just you got to keep working, keep improving and you’ll get out of it.”
The Yankees were 16-8 after starter Marcus Stroman picked up his second win of the season on Tuesday, logging 5.1 innings, giving up seven hits, three runs, and striking out nine in a 4-3 win over the A’s. They were in first place in the American League East, a half game ahead of the
15-8 Baltimore Orioles when yesterday’s MLB schedule began.
In the midst of Judge fighting through an early season funk, right fielder Juan Soto, designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton, first baseman Anthony Rizzo, and shortstop Anthony Volpe have mitigated his low production. When the Yankees took the field last night, Soto led them with 20 RBI and 29 hits. Stanton topped the team with 5 home runs and was third with 12 RBI. Rizzo had 21 hits and 10 RBI, and Volpe was second on the Yankees with 25 hits and his six stolen bases were the most on the club. Additionally, third baseman Oswaldo Cabrera was having a solid campaign with 20 hits and 14 RBI.
The Yankees begin a seven-game road trip tomorrow. They are scheduled for three against the Milwaukee Brewers and four versus the Baltimore Orioles.