Saturday’s game between the New York Yankees and the Blue Jays started with a long Vladimir Guerrero Jr. home run that gave Toronto an early 1-0 lead. However, All-Star slugger and Yanks’ captain Aaron Judge found a man on base in the bottom of the first and brought him home with a two-run shot.
In the second inning, Judge came to bat with two outs and the bases empty, after Trent Grisham had hit another two-run blast. Manager John Schneider decided not to face the risk of having the 2022 AL MVP hit a solo home run and put another run on the scoreboard, so he intentionally walked him.
Austin Wells singled to extend the inning, but Gleyber Torres struck out to end it. It was rather shocking to see the Jays choosing to walk Judge with nobody on and two outs, but that’s the effect he causes on opposing teams: they are afraid of them, and they aren’t hiding it anymore.
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Pitchers are afraid of the Yankees captain
The Yankees star is up to 41 home runs and 103 RBI, and it’s just August 3. Not only he is the best offensive player in baseball, but the most impressive thing is that it might not be close. The last hitter that put so much fear into pitchers and managers was Barry Bonds in the 2000s.
Sure, Judge doesn’t lead MLB in intentional walks (IBB) this season, but he is very close and not all IBBs are created equal. Most of them come in situations in which there is a clear risk of multiple runs being scored if the pitcher decides to face the batter or to increase the chances of a double play. In this specific case, it was straight out of fear and being overly cautious, because the bases were empty.
Judge has a chance to help the Yankees make the World Series and to win his second MVP award if he keeps this up.
