David Lennon: Aaron Judge's heroics were inevitable . . . and sorely needed
The Yankees' Aaron Judge celebrates with teammates after hitting a two-run walk-off two run in the ninth inning against the Tampa Bay Rays at Yankee Stadium on Sunday. Credit: Newsday/Thomas A. Ferrara
Ultimately, Aaron Judge was going to hit another home run. It’s as natural as breathing for the three-time MVP, so the fact that he went 11 games without launching a baseball over the fence meant one was on the way, sooner rather than later.
Beating the Rays, however, hardly was guaranteed for the Yankees, who had lost four straight to AL East-leading Tampa Bay and couldn’t afford to come up empty again, even in late May.
So in the ninth inning of a scoreless game on Sunday, everyone at the Stadium had an idea what was coming when Judge stepped to the plate to face Kevin Kelly. The Yankees, watching from the dugout rail, toed the line between excitedly hopeful and secretly convinced.
“You always know that it’s highly likely,” Cody Bellinger said before downshifting to “very possible.”
Based on the stakes and the situation, Bellinger’s first instinct was the correct one. Kelly’s first pitch to Judge was a 93-mph sinker that cut toward the inside of the plate and wound up landing a few rows deep in the right-centerfield seats to deliver a 2-0 victory for the Yankees.
The walk-off blast was Judge’s fourth since 2022, tied with Patrick Bailey for most in the majors during that span (h/t to researcher Katie Sharp). It ended a drought of 55 plate appearances dating to his first-inning homer against the Brewers on May 10. That also was the date of his most recent RBI, so to suggest Judge was due would be an understatement.
“I really didn’t know about it until you guys bring it up,” he said. “But there’s no frustration. I got a job to do. Obviously, I want to get the job done and help the team win. And we weren’t winning, so I was mad about that. But no homers, no RBIs? You can find other ways to help your team win, so that’s what I was trying to do. I’m glad the homer and RBIs came in a win for us.”
As Judge’s latest funk reminded us, the Yankees don’t win when he doesn’t produce, and it wasn’t just the lack of homers, either. He was 4-for-35 with 13 strikeouts in his previous nine games, so it was hardly a coincidence that the Yankees entered the day in a 4-10 skid that began with that Brewers sweep.
Kelly began the game with a 2.28 ERA and 0.72 WHIP and had been even better in his previous 15 games, allowing one run (which was unearned) in 16 innings and recording a 0.56 WHIP. After Trent Grisham battled back from an 0-and-2 count to draw a walk, pitching coach Kyle Snyder went to the mound to visit with Kelly — and almost before he could return to the dugout, the ball was in the seats.
As the zeros kept piling up on a rainy afternoon, Judge didn’t offer much foreshadowing. He ripped a single in his first at-bat, then exhibited some very non-Judge-ian behavior by getting doubled off first on Ben Rice’s hard lineout to rightfield. For whatever reason, he drifted more than halfway to second base on what appeared to be a rather routine out off the bat. It was a head-scratcher, prompting Aaron Boone to turn to bench coach Brad Ausmus and say, “I’ve never seen that.”
“Things like that don’t ever happen with him,” Boone said.
Judge said he was trying to get a good jump, thinking Rice’s liner would be in the gap — only to be dead wrong.
“It’s a bad look,” he said. “I just got to clean that up.”
The Yankees supplied the captain with that second chance by playing one of their most airtight games of the season. Ryan Weathers kept pace with Drew Rasmussen as both delivered seven scoreless innings, and the Yankees came up with a number of pivotal defensive plays.
The biggest came in the eighth. Bellinger fielded what appeared to be a go-ahead RBI single by Ryan Vilade and threw out Junior Caminero at third for the third out before pinch runner Oliver Dunn could touch the plate, nullifying the run.
Dunn never stopped hustling as he tried to score from second, but when Bellinger alertly rifled a one-hop throw to third, Ryan McMahon made a nice grab and applied the tag on Caminero before Dunn could slide across the plate. The play was reviewed, but in reality, it was an easy call.
“Honestly, that was all Mac,” Bellinger said. “I picked my head up, Mac had a huge target at third, and I actually threw a pretty nasty sinker to him. He did a great job of picking it and putting the tag on.”
Judge said: “That’s a game-changing play right there.Good pick by Mac, but that’s why [Bellinger] is a Gold Glover out there and been kind of our MVP all season long — him and Ben Rice.”
Weathers’ gem, along with two tightrope relief innings from Fernando Cruz and Tim Hill, put the Yankees in position to win, but on an afternoon when they had to show they could outclass the Rays at their own game — pitching, defense and baserunning — the outcome was decided by one massive swing from Judge.
“It really feels like a matter of time,” Bellinger said. “This game is so difficult, and he’s literally one of the best hitters of all time. But he’s always grinding, always working, and it was good to see that one go over the fence for sure.”
Maybe Judge played it cool afterward for the media after his 17th homer, but there was genuine joy — and dare we say relief — after he leaped into the scrum waiting at home plate. The “M-V-P” chants from the crowd of 41,396 serenaded him around the bases.
“It’s a special moment,” he said.
And one that could only be described as inevitable.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
