Judge’s gigantic explosion surprises fans in Giants’ loss to Yankees originally appeared in NBC Sports Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO – Aaron Judge must have known the question was coming. Nearly two minutes passed before the towering New York Yankees star did his best to hide his excitement behind a world-famous sincere smile.
Were you aiming for the Coke bottle?
“I wasn’t,” Judge said after an audible laugh that he couldn’t contain. “I was just trying to make contact, man. Yes, it’s there deep down. It’s really deep, so I was happy to get it over the fence and we were able to go up two runs.
While Yankees fans dominated Oracle Park for the first two games of the Giants’ three-game series against New York, Judge provided ample torture for the home crowd on Friday night with his two-home run performance to cap off a historic May . His first try of June was a towering entrance into a new month, launching a burst rarely seen here in the world. the Giants’ 7-3 defeat Saturday night.
Giants ace Logan Webb gave Judge everything he had before the former AL MVP — who is leading the majors in nearly every power hitting category this season — won the battle once again. Two sweepers, three sinkers and three changes were not enough to get the job done.
On the ninth pitch that Judge saw in the first inning, and on the fourth changeup with which Webb tried to beat him, the slugger hit an off-speed pitch that struck much of the plate deep into the left-field stands.
As the ball continued to load and load and load before a sunny San Francisco night cooled, it was easy to wonder: Was Judge really about to go where no hitter in this ballpark has gone before? No, but it sure felt like it a little.
The famous 500-foot sign near the huge glove in left-center field adjacent to the Coca-Cola bottle is no longer there. Like it or not, Judge had two targets he couldn’t miss in the batter’s box. And he almost reached uncharted territory.
Judge’s two-run pitch in the first inning to give the Yankees the exact cushion required against Webb traveled 464 feet and had an exit velocity of 115.7 mph.
Somehow, that was his third-longest home run this season alone, despite it being the sixth-farthest hit ball and sixth-farthest hit ball in the park in the Statcast era since 2015.
“I knew he devoured it right away,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “It’s just one of those ‘Ohh!’ Just great hitting. Yes, the result was special, but it’s a battle between a very good pitcher and obviously a great hitter.”
Giancarlo Stanton — who also hit plenty of moonshots and hit a two-run homer down the left field line in the eighth inning — added: “It was going. It was about 20 or 30 lines up, so it was close.”
The judge’s big fly brought back memories of Andrés Galarraga almost 23 years later. Galarraga, in his first of two stints with San Francisco, soared past the stands in 2001, sinking a solo shot as close as anyone has ever come to a Coca-Cola bottle.
In his first 10 innings playing for the first time at Oracle Park, Judge, a Northern California native who grew up a Giants fan two hours from the stadium, hit 1,284 feet of home runs. But it’s his teammate, not him, who Judge believes has the best chance of crushing a ball hard enough to rise to the Coke bottle or glove that’s impossible to miss.
“Stanton,” said the judge. “I think it’s the only one I have. Even at BP today, in his first round, his fourth shot, he hit one in the middle of the stands and I thought, ‘You’re just warming up, huh?’
“He’s at the top of my list.”
Family and friends came out in droves to watch Judge play against his hometown team. No matter how many tickets he reserved for them, the atmosphere felt like thousands of people joined the party over two games. Whether it’s Boone or his teammates, the Yankees aren’t underestimating how much these three games mean to Judge.
No hard feelings, though. At least according to the judge.
“I love the Giants,” Judge said. “It’s not personal. I have a job to do on every team we play.
Being romantic about baseball is one thing. What Judge has done in going 5-for-7 with three home runs and six RBI so far is a definition of love that Giants fans want no part of, no matter how much they wish he was wearing their colors as opposed to the Bronx Bombers. , going around the bases and smiling despite everything.
