Judge’s 16th homer of the season tied him for the major league lead and was the decisive blow in the Yankees’ victory.
Aaron Judge’s power, by now, is well known around Major League Baseball. He is a gargantuan man with a mighty swing, one that has helped propel the Yankees to the top of the American League East. But just because Judge’s reputation precedes him, it does not mean he will not find a way to punish the pitcher who makes the mistake of testing his strength.
Oakland Athletics starter Andrew Triggs learned how forceful Judge can be in the third inning of Sunday’s game at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees had loaded the bases after a blooper-reel error by right fielder Matt Joyce, and Judge found himself up with two outs as the Yankees trailed by one. If Triggs had hoped to escape, he did not go about his task wisely.
He left a 90-mile-per-hour fastball over the heart of the plate on a 2-1 count. Judge’s swing had an easy motion, and the flick of his arms belied his strength, as the ball sailed 376 feet into the right field stands for his first career grand slam.
Judge’s homer propelled the Yankees to a 9-5 win, concluding a weeklong homestand before seven games on the road against the Baltimore Orioles and the Toronto Blue Jays.
“It was a big momentum-shifter, ” Manager Joe Girardi said of Judge’s homer, adding it gave Yankees starter Michael Pineda room to work. “It was important.”
The shot was Judge’s 16th home run this season — tying him with Mike Trout for the major league lead. It also broke a drought for the Yankees, who had been struggling for runs over the last week. The Yankees are the A. L.’s highest scoring team, but they had notched just seven runs over their last three games, depending on pitching instead.
Judge shared some of the blame for that dry spell. While he kept picking up hits, he had hit one home run in the 12 games before Sunday’s. He said that he felt he had been rolling over too many balls, rather than driving them, so he decided to focus on letting pitches travel farther through the zone before swinging.
With his strength, Judge can hit hard even if he does not get the full barrel of the bat on the ball. Girardi said Judge was a “defensive end playing baseball.”
As a sign of Judge’s power, Girardi pointed to Judge’s next at-bat, when he lofted a fly ball.
“God knows how far that would have went if he hadn’ t gotten under it a little bit, ” Girardi said. “He’s an amazing athlete. He’s big and he’s strong and he’s simplified things. He’s made a lot of adjustments from last year to where he is right now and that’s why he’s effective.”
While Judge has been a crucial part of the Yankees’ success this season, the team has also benefited from an improved starting rotation. Yankees starters have allowed the fourth-lowest on-base plus slugging percentage in the American League this season. Even as Masahiro Tanaka has struggled, Pineda has stepped up.
Pineda allowed three runs and three hits over six innings Sunday. Without command of his usually reliable slider, he turned to his changeup at key moments and used his cutter to keep the A’s at bay.
The outing continued Pineda’s strong season. He has a 3.32 E. R. A., is eighth in the A. L. with 66 strikeouts, and fifth with a 1.04 WHIP. Girardi has credited Pineda’s success to more consistent cutting movement on his fastball, which is breaking two more inches, on average, than last year, according to FanGraphs.com. Better control has also helped: Pineda is walking batters at nearly half the rate of last season, with 12 walks in 59⅔ innings.
Pineda’s emergence has come at the right time for him, and the club. He is entering free agency this winter, and after years of tantalizing potential, this could finally be his breakout campaign.
“I think he expected it to happen last year, just like he expected it to happen this year, ” Girardi said. “But this year he’s made better pitches.”
