Aaron Judge (31-New York Yankees), who is in the running for American League MVP for the second straight year, turned a special multi-homer game into history with his own glove.
Jersey went 3-for-4 with two home runs, a double, a walk, three RBIs and three runs scored while starting in second and right field in the Yankees’ 2023 Major League Baseball opener against the Seattle Mariners at T-Mobile Park in Seattle, Washington, USA, on Tuesday. The Yankees won 10-4 behind Judge’s multi-homer performance.
It was a complete game. With the bases loaded in the top of the third inning and the score tied 1-1, Judge crushed a fastball up the middle from Bryce Miller for a grand slam over the left field fence. It was a bullet-like, line-drive home run with a bat speed of 116.9 miles per hour.
In his next at-bat, he warmed up his bat again with his 10th double of the season, and in the bottom of the sixth inning, he hit a changeup to the body of Juan Deng for a 378-foot solo shot that just cleared the left-center field fence. It brought his season numbers to .302 (49-for-162) with 17 homers, 38 RBIs, a .408 on-base percentage, a .679 slugging percentage and a 1.087 OPS in 45 games. He led the American League in home runs and the majors in on-base percentage and OPS.
It was the 31st two-homer game of his career. That’s the fourth-most in major league history, with Babe Ruth (68 games) holding the record. Behind him are Yankees seniors Mickey Mantle (46 games), Lou Gehrig (43 games), and Joe DiMaggio (35 games).
Multiple home runs in a single game is impressive, but it’s not a rare feat. On this particular day, however, Jersey’s late-game heroics made his multi-homer game even more special. In the top of the eighth inning with the New York Yankees leading 9-4, Seattle’s Teoscar Rodriguez hit a home run to the right field wall. It was a shot that would have been a home run in 12 of 30 stadiums with an expected OPS of .570, according to Statcast.
But it turned out to be an ordinary fly ball to right field, as Jersey calmly chased it down and snatched it up at the right time. A fantastic catch, 메이저놀이터 no matter the crowd. Last year, Judge also had a single-game multi-homer game on July 29 against the Kansas City Royals, stealing a home run from the opposing team, according to MLB.com. But he’s the only player in the last 30 years to have two such games.
After the game, Jersey said, “I remembered Hernandez sending a lot of pitches over my head in right field. This time, I took one look at the wall and knew I could catch it, so I didn’t want to let it go,” he explained, adding, “I’m proud of my defense.”
It was a defense that drew almost as many cheers as the multi-homer game. Domingo Herrmann, who was resting in the training room off the field, attested to the excitement of the moment when a multi-homer game hadn’t been played in 30 years. “I was in the (off-field) training room when the jersey caught that ball and I felt it bounce,” Hermann said, according to MLB.com.
The all-around performance of his protégé led Yankees manager Aaron Boone to say, “He’s a really special player. He’s doing things that no one else can do. It’s fun to watch him play every day.”
