A year ago, it took Aaron Judge 25 games to hit four home runs.
After a spring training during which he said he would make some adjustments in order to get off to a better start to the season, Judge has four homers in the first three games of the year — and might have had more if the Brewers didn’t throw in the towel following his first-inning blast in Sunday’s 12-3 win.
Judge drew three straight walks after the first-inning blast, as he’s pacing a Yankees offense that has come out of the gates firing.
“Like I said, I wanted to have a better March and April than I did last season,” Judge said. “I did some stuff throughout spring training, but I think the biggest thing is this offense. Every time I walk up there, there’s guys on base, there’s traffic. The at-bats in front of me, even if it’s an out, are seven, eight, nine pitches. That makes my job a little easier.”
On a chilly afternoon at Yankee Stadium, Paul Goldschmidt led off with a single.
After Cody Bellinger flied out, Judge launched a 113 mph rocket, 410 feet out to left to give the Yankees a 2-1 lead against Aaron Civale.
And then they began taking the bat out of his hands.
After falling behind Judge 3-0 in the third, Civale walked Judge intentionally, only to give up a two-run shot to Jazz Chisholm Jr. a batter later.
Judge walked and scored again to start the bottom of the sixth and walked with one out in the seventh before Chisholm’s second homer of the day.
Judge was replaced by pinch hitter Pablo Reyes in the eighth.
“I try not to think about it,” Judge said of opposing team’s approaches to him. “In those situations, I lock down where I want to see a pitch and where I want to drive something. It’s out of my hands. My job is to compete against the pitcher and try to drive somebody in or get on base. I can’t worry if someone is pitching around me.”
And this year, it looks like he won’t have to worry about getting off to a rough start.
It’s easy to forget considering his numbers at the end of the season, but Judge had a pedestrian OPS of .725 on May 2, before tearing through the league the rest of the year.
A full season of a healthy, productive Judge would likely put him in rarefied air.
“You never know,” Aaron Boone said of where Judge could end up with a good first month. “With Aaron, I never put a ceiling on what he can do. It’s good to see him have a really great first series.”
He also noted that following his 62-homer 2022 season people asked, “How could you top that?’ And he did in ’24.”
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