Aaron Judge stayed on the ground momentarily after making the last of his highlight-worthy catches on Friday.
It didn’t take long for Judge to get up and begin to head toward the dugout, but anytime Judge hits the ground, his teammates, and basically anyone associated with the Yankees, holds their breath.
“My first thought was that I was a little nervous,’’ Aaron Boone said. “Him going over there, sliding on the dirt pretty hard. I was making sure the big guy was OK.”
As usual, Judge was more than OK, as he impacted Friday’s 11-0 rout of the Cubs with his glove — and added a pair of walks and a sacrifice fly.
No play was better than the final one he made, robbing Kyle Tucker of a two-run double with a full-out diving catch near the right field line to end the top of the eighth.
It allowed Carlos Rodón to finish eight scoreless innings.
“I felt like I had to run a mile to get to the ball,’’ Judge said. “I had to take a minute to make sure I caught it. I don’t think I’m getting old, but sometimes it feels like it. I had to check to make sure everything was where it was supposed to be.”
The robbery occurred immediately after Judge’s lone misplay of the night, when he said he lost Nico Hoerner’s single to right-center in the lights that nearly knocked Rodón out of the game, but Boone gave the lefty one more batter and he got Tucker.
Judge said he was ready to “run through a wall” to get Tucker’s fly ball following Hoerner’s base hit — which is exactly what the Yankees don’t want, especially after his infamous collision with the fence at Dodger Stadium in 2023 that resulted in an injured toe that derailed the entire season.
“I’ve got a job to do,” Judge said of his mentality on defense. “That was kind of a freak thing that happened at Dodger Stadium, and when the pitcher is working his butt off, I have to do what I can.”
Judge’s glovework on Friday began in the top of the fourth on consecutive plays, helping protect what was then a three-run lead.
The first one came with one out, when Chicago’s burgeoning star Pete Crow-Armstrong sent a fly ball deep to right, seemingly headed to the seats in the shallow part of the park.
But Judge got to the wall, timed his leap perfectly and avoided the distraction of a fan also reaching for the ball to make an excellent catch.
With chants of “MVP” from the Stadium crowd still echoing, Judge made almost as good a catch on the next play, as he raced in and dove headfirst to steal a single from Dansby Swanson on a sinking liner for the final out of the inning.
Again, the Bronx crowd responded with “MVP” chants as Judge jogged off the field.
Friday provided another example of how much better the Yankees are with Judge in right field and Trent Grisham and Cody Bellinger splitting time in center.
Judge entered the game with solid defensive metrics in right, with three defensive runs saved, according to FanGraphs, good for seventh best in the majors.
Contrast that number — albeit an imperfect one — with the minus-9 DRS he put up last year in center, which was third worst in the majors among 18 players who saw enough innings at the position to qualify for the stat.
“He’s an elite right fielder,’’ Boone said. “He’s just a great player who takes a ton of pride in his defense.”
