It took the Yankees 30 games to get their first 15 wins of the season. It has taken them 19 games to get their next 14. This is what’s called trending in the right direction. There were all manner of hysterical reactions when the Rays were playing at a pace to win about 170 games this year, when the Yankees fell 10 games in arrears on May 5 and again on May 7.
That margin was down to 5 ½ before the Rays played the Blue Jays on Monday night in St. Petersburg. The Yankees still have 113 games to play, starting Tuesday night with an intriguing series with the hyper-confident Orioles. No matter how many times we tell ourselves “it’s a long season,” it’s easy to forget that it really is a long season. And things really do often shake themselves out the way they’re supposed to.
That is especially true when you have the single-greatest offensive force in the sport on your side. And the Yankees have that on their side. They have Aaron Judge, who may not hit 62 home runs this year but remains at the peak of his professional powers a few weeks past his 31st birthday.
It is a nice thing to have four and five times a night in the No. 2 hole, which Judge has turned into the new cleanup spot.
“It’s impressive watching that guy day in and day out,” Yankees reliever Ron Marinaccio says. “The quality of at-bat never changes. It’s almost like a ticking time bomb when you’re waiting for him to make a big hit or hit a homer for us. He always seems to be coming through. It’s fun to watch that guy up close and personal every day.”
It sure is if you’re a Yankees fan. Judge lost 10 days to the injured list and sat Sunday when he was given a day off in Cincinnati. He has played 38 games and the Yankees have won 24 of them. That is not a coincidence. Judge isn’t just a collector of numbers; in his first tour of duty as Yankees captain he has put the “valuable” in “most valuable player.”
Judge came off the IL May 9, and he was allowed to shake the rust off that night because the Yankees were enjoying a fun night at the expense of America’s Homecoming opponent, the Athletics. But in the 11 games since, he is hitting .405, slugging .976, he’s gotten on base 51.9 percent of the time, hit seven homers, driven in 16.
He has been what he’s always been when healthy and locked in: a one-man wrecking ball. And the Yankees, unsurprisingly, are 8-3 in that stretch.
It’s the kind of performance that makes almost everyone who doesn’t wear No. 99 on his back shake their heads in wonder.
“I try not to think about it,” Judge says. “I just try to treat every at-bat like it’s its own at-bat, no matter if I got out or got a hit in my previous at-bat. It’s just about going up there, assessing the situation, seeing who’s on the mound, what do I need to do to help the team win. So when you go from that mindset, you never know if you’re hot or you’re cold.”
Trust us, Aaron. You’re hotter than Taylor Swift tickets right now.
And here’s the thing: It was already assumed that last year was going to be a hard one to match, let alone top, because the kinds of numbers Judge amassed in 2022 (the 62 homers, the 131 RBIs, the 1.111 OPS) were simply not the kinds of numbers that would seem replicable. Throw in the 10-day IL stay, you add to the degree of difficulty.
Still, on the morning of May 23 last year, these are the numbers Judge woke up to: 15 HRs, 35 RBIs, a 1.065 OPS. On the morning of May 23 of this year, these are the numbers he will wake up to: 13 HRs, 32 RBIs, 1.042 OPS. Now, last year’s season started later because of the lockout, so there were more at-bats ahead for Judge last year than there will be this year. So 62 might still be farfetched.
But with this player, in this time … really, is anything?
“I think it’s just very reminiscent of what we saw last year,” Clarke Schmidt says. “You see the same guy. I don’t think anything’s changed from last year.”
Maybe the best moment came in an instant of supposed failure, too. That was last Sunday, against the Rays at the Stadium. The Yankees trailed 8-7. There were two outs in the ninth. Judge stepped to the plate. Baseball isn’t supposed to be this easy to predict and yet there were 42,116 people in the stands, 25 men in the Yankees’ dugout and bullpen and (probably) 24 others wearing Rays uniforms who knew — just knew — that Judge was going to tie the game.
Then he swung. And the one holdout Ray — Jason Adam, who threw the pitch — was suddenly converted. He doubled over at the waist. He, too, knew what had just happened. Only somehow, the ball died a few inches shy of the 399-foot sign in Death Valley. Jose Siri made the catch. Adam drew a breath. Judge saluted him.
In a game defined by failure, the wonder of the moment was that Judge actually had failed. But what a ride. What a player. And what a season. Again.
