Hicks can only tip Yankees umpire after two-homer game

Hicks can only tip Yankees umpire after two-homer game originally appeared in NBC Sports Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO – Jordan Hicks wishes he could recover two shots from the Giants’ 6-2 defeat against the New York Yankees on Friday night at Oracle Park.

“Can you guess?” Hicks asked sarcastically after the loss.

The answer could not have been more obvious. Yankees superstar and Northern California native Aaron Judge picked up Hicks’ yardage twice in slugger’s first game at Giants Stadium. He first hit a three-run blast in the third inning into the left field stands, and later hit a solo shot to center field in the sixth inning.

Both had no doubts. Neither man made Hicks guess what was about to happen next.

“With that power, when he hits the ball I know it’s gone,” Hicks said. “There are some guys, they get it right and it’s like it could be right on the wall, but it’s just a different sound.”

Listen for yourself.

The moment the ball met the bat, the result was not in question. What was about to happen next wouldn’t be single, double, or triple, and it certainly wouldn’t be a way out.

Hicks had already faced Judge three times and eliminated him twice. But all of those previous matchups came when Hicks was a reliever, when he regularly dropped back and threw 101 and 102 mph. The hardest pitch Hicks threw Friday night was two 96.1 mph sinkers — one to Gleyber Torres and one to Judge.

The two pitches Umpire hit on Hicks were 86.8 mph and 91.9 mph.

“If you take one of the three best hitters in the game having the best month of his career, I probably need to take my cap off,” Hicks said. “I thought he played really well, he hit solid shots. Obviously I would like to have one or two of them back, but don’t get into the three-ball count.

“That’s my best advice.”

While Hicks said he would recover two pitches that were thrown 820 feet, a splitter that traveled 394 feet and a sinker that traveled 426 feet, there is a bigger lesson to be learned that the 27-year-old identified. Hicks, or anyone else, can’t let a bat as powerful as Judge get into a favorable situation.

Hicks did not allow a walk for the fourth time this season in 12 starts. Yet he also walked 10 of the 23 batters he faced. Although he shot better than 67 percent, Hicks let perhaps the most intimidating man in baseball feel very comfortable at the plate.

Judge hit both of his home runs on a three-ball count. Hicks threw a first-pitch fly ball while hitting Judge’s first home run, but struck out twice two pitches later. Judge ended up fighting through an eight-pitch at-bat before taking advantage of a splitter in his wheelhouse.

The long pass was the first home run Hicks allowed off a splitter all season.

Hicks threw a first-pitch strike on Judge’s next at-bat, but then three straight balls out of the zone put him in a tough spot. Judge then once again unloaded a low, inbound ball, this time a sinker that sank right where all of his 6-foot-2 frame wanted it.

“He’s too good a hitter to be this comfortable,” Hicks said. “You need to be much more selective in these moments.”

While the five runs, four earned, that Hicks gave up were the most allowed this season, he also reached a milestone. Hicks had already thrown 89 pitches in five innings. His record from the previous season and career was 96 shots on April 21st. The Giants’ bullpen went over the edge and Hicks told manager Bob Melvin after the fifth inning that he still felt good.

When Hicks was pulled to sixth, he came away with a career-high 101 pitches. Hicks is happy to reach the milestone for the first time in the majors and didn’t feel more tired compared to other matches.

“I feel like I’m fully prepared now,” Hicks said. “It’s good for me, in my mind, to get that 100-pitch mark. If there’s a situation where we need to go to 110 and the bullpen is banged up or something, I think 10 or 15 extra pitches isn’t too far off.

No one holding a baseball had a chance to shut down Judge all of May, including Hicks. Judge slashed .371/.488/.928 for the month. The 2022 AL MVP hit 12 doubles, 14 home runs and 27 RBI on his way to becoming the first player this season to hit 20 dingers.

The “Come on, Yankees!” chants echoed. The letters “MVP” were shouted more times than dealership workers looking for the next hot dog eater. Hicks wasn’t alone, he was just in the path of a man returning to his hometown park to end a month of destroying everything in his path, leaving fans with another bitter taste of agony from a star who turned them down.

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