From Bryan Hoch:
Aaron Judge raised his right arm and offered his customary captain’s salute to the bullpen crew as he approached second base, jogging once again after his second home run of the night. Not a bad way for No. 99 to collect his 99th RBI.
Judge belted long homers in the first and seventh innings, extending his Major League lead to 39 long balls as the Yankees hammered Phillies All-Star Zack Wheeler early, rolling to a 14-4 rout on Monday evening at Citizens Bank Park.
“Especially the first one he hit today, I was like, ‘Man, this is crazy to see,’” said Jazz Chisholm Jr., who also homered twice, including a ninth-inning blast using Judge’s bat. “Seeing him do what he does, the way he goes about it, it’s my first time seeing a player work like him up close in-person every day. It’s really great.”
Holy shit, this dude in UNREAL. As noted in the comments, Judge’s CAREER OPS is now 1.001. That’s his CAREER OPS. That is INSANE. We’re talking inner circle Hall of Famers who have an OPS 1.000 or better this late into their careers. Amazing. Just amazing.
And the Yankees did it all against Zack Wheeler, who is an excellent pitcher (and who has dominated the Yankees in the past).
Luis Gil, meanwhile, gave you the full Luis Gil experience. Sometimes extremely frustrating, sometimes extremely impressive. Overall, he had a PRETTY good game. A quality start, but I think we all know that “quality start” nowadays is pretty much what you EXPECT from a good starter (three runs in six innings. Gil went 6 1/3).
Michael Tonkin got a big out for Gil in the seventh, but then was shaky himself in the 8th. I still like Tonkin a lot, but yes, it would probably be nice if he was lower on the totem pole, so hopefully Cashman makes a trade for a reliever. It’d be great to get a closer so that Holmes could become a top setup guy.
The featured image is Judge on his SECOND home run of the game, his 99th RBI of the season. Insane.
Good news Boone promised DJ would see some starts against LHPs.
Three in a row, been a while. Not since June 9-12, in fact, when they won 4 in a row.
Been a long lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely time
Yes, it has
Did anyone watching Judge have any doubt that we’re talking about an inner-circle hall of famer? It’s surreal, it’s amazing we get to watch that.
…
What that career OPS+ list told me was… damn. We’re watching Judge, and how much better could anyone be? But then look at the jumps first to Williams, then to Ruth. Imagine watching THAT! It’s actually hard to do.
…
A few points: 1) Imagine if he’d has a full spring training and didn’t take the first month off. That may still be ahead. 2) If they Mattingly him and never get him a WS win, an exception should be made to the US’s ban on torture. (Yes, another one, I know.) 4) We decide what’s real, not some company. 74 is not a thing. Judge is ALREADY the all-time MLB home run leader. Which also means he’s 7th, and not 8th on that list.
if there’s a ban on torture then what do you call the last month of watching this team?
Zing!
Hidden in the glory is the fact that the most important thing this game held for the season may have been Volpe continuing to actually be good. Something almost every game. Fingers crossed.
Volpe and Gil, of course. Who had a bit of bad luck and a lot of brilliance.
It’s funny, the Yankees’ two best series recently, the Orioles and Red Sox series wins, EACH had one loss in them that was HORRIFIC. That’s weird, right? Two big wins and one HORRIBLE loss in each series. Too odd.
Clay Holmes in both, right? Hope Cash is active today and that he does a better job than he did in 2022
While Holmes sucked in both games, in the first one, he had the game won TWICE, ya know? When Volpe and Verdugo fucked him with errors on easy plays. Then in the Boston game, as bad as he was, Luke Weaver was just as bad.
So, really, both horrible losses were true team shitfests.
That said, yes, please, Cashman, get a closer! Let Holmes be a good setup guy!
Holmes did have the game won twice. But if he hadn’t sucked those guys onto the bases, neither error (if they happened at all) would have hurt, and they wouldn’t have gotten to the second one at all.
Once he put them in that position, it’s still really more on him than anyone else. Especially as he does that way to often, something you can’t say about Volpe or Verdugo.
If the yanks play 500 from here on in, they will win 90 games and make the playoffs. And lose to Houston in the first round.
If the yanks play 500 from here on in, that’s a better result than they deserve.
As if the Astros won’t end up getting a first round bye.
Judge is an absolute machine of a hitter. His hot zone is basically the strike zone and he hits lefties and righties equally well. I’m not sure that there is a good reason to pitch him in the zone. The only modern hitter [non-Bonds division] who compares to Judge is prime Trout.
It’s a treat getting to watch him hit.
SSS but I am enjoying the Jazz Chisholm era.
Thanks for the memories, Gleyber.
Agree! If he hits around one home run per game, this will have been an unobjectionable acquisition, even having given up a good prospect.
Jazz is the first Yankee to have 2 HRs and one stolen base in his first two games since Felipe Alou in 1971.
How’s that for the most useless stat ever?!
It’s a good thing to know in case they remake Diner and locate it to NY.
Yanks swing a deal for Mark Leiter Jr. Needle-mover.