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The most damaging walk for the Yankees is not the one that Gleyber Torres took to first the other day, assuming a homer and winding up with a single and not long after that a message-sent benching by Aaron Boone.
It is all the intentional ones that Aaron Judge is accumulating …
Unless Austin Wells, Giancarlo Stanton and the rest of the batters behind Judge do something to make that strategy regrettable.
“You are going to see it more and more,” Blue Jays pitching coach Pete Walker said. “He’s on such a roll right now that it’s going to become commonplace.”
And Walker said that before Sunday’s game. Before he and manager John Schneider decided to intentionally walk Judge three times — twice in unconventional spots, though not as uncommon as the one issued Saturday.
Walker, before a pitch was thrown in the rubber game of this three-game set, said, “You might see that where you walk him and put yourself in a spot where a single beats you, but you just are not going to let him swing that bat. You are just going to take your chances with the next guy. I wouldn’t be surprised if you saw that a lot. It might happen more than once.”
It did Sunday as Judge became the first Yankee intentionally passed three times in a game since Bernie Williams on Sept. 26, 1999. And he joined Cleveland’s Jose Ramirez as the only major leaguers intentionally walked three times in a game in the last three seasons.
The Yankees failed to score in any of the three innings in which Judge was walked, but managed to still beat Toronto 4-3 on a walkoff single by DJ LeMahieu.
Even in defeat, Toronto provided a blueprint for what the Yankees should expect down the stretch, as the meaning of the games rises. Basically, opponents are going to try to minimize the chances for “All Rise” moments.
Judge has been playing above the sport since May; essentially playing akin to Barry Bonds in the early 2000s — he does not see many pitches to hit, yet somehow can’t stop hitting homers on the ones near the plate.
He homered in the first inning Friday and Saturday and Schneider basically had enough. That gave Judge a Yankee-tying — and it tied Babe Ruth — 16 first-inning homers in 2024 and 41 in all, or eight more than anyone else.
Judge was intentionally walked with two outs and no one on in the second inning Saturday. It represented the first time a player was intentionally walked in the first two innings of a game with the bases empty since Aug. 10, 1972 — and that was a light-hitting catcher Glenn Borgmann to bring up a pitcher. On Saturday, it was to bring up Wells, who has been hitting terrific.
But there is a difference between terrific and otherworldly — and Judge has been a baseball alien, which is why Aaron Boone said before Sunday’s game, when informed of how long ago it had been since someone was walked similarly: “Oh, so that’s beyond the Bonds treatment. Now we call it the Judge treatment.”
Judge is actually a better overall hitter than in 2022, when he hit a Yankees record 62 homers — and never was intentionally walked three times in a game that year.
“I know our thought process [Saturday] and watching him this series and watching video from this year, it’s just he’s in a different place right now. … I know we haven’t done that since I’ve been coaching to anybody, and that’s 12 years as a pitching coach,” Walker said. “And I know [manager John Schneider] was pretty adamant about it. I can’t think of anyone else we’d even consider doing it for.”
On Sunday, Judge actually struck out with runners on first and second in the first, but singled in the third. He was then intentionally walked without an open base — runner on first and one out in the fifth. Right after a Soto homer put the Yankees ahead 3-2 in the seventh, Judge was walked to put a runner on first with no out. More traditionally, he was walked with second and third and two outs in the eighth inning of a tie game.
Judge now has 11 intentional walks — four in the past two games. That, obviously, does not count the unintentional intentional walks that are part of his MLB-high-tying (with Soto) 92 walks. Those two, obviously, are on base all the time. The question will be if there will be damage behind them.
Even with Wells performing at a high level since the end of June, Yankees cleanup batters began Sunday with the lowest batting average (.217), second lowest on-base percentage (.277) and third-lowest slugging (.340). To give you an idea of why teams are going to avoid Judge, he went into Sunday 9-for-16 (.563) with three homers in the second half with runners in scoring position. The rest of the Yankees were 22-122 (.180) with five homers.
“Every team, every pitching coach, every strategy, every advanced meeting for the pitchers, you are picking the guy who you’re not going to let beat you. Yet, he beats you,” Walker said. “I know the strategy going in is to not let him get anything to hit, yet he still gets his hits. And it’s big hits. It’s amazing. He will take the base hit to right field and if you make a mistake inside he will hit it 470 feet. He’s a complete hitter.”
Toronto got tired of seeing it, so just let Judge walk — and the Yankees can’t go on a run to The Canyon of Heroes unless his teammates make opponents pay for that strategy.
