It was a much talked about event when New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge was intentionally walked three times by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 4-3 win last Sunday. Los Angeles Angels manager Ron Washington spoke about the possibility of his team intentionally walking Judge which sparked a complimentary response.
In one of the three times the Blue Jays gave Judge a free pass, there was no one base with two outs left and they still walked him, which had some fans compare the Yankees star to former player Barry Bonds. Washington said he would not do that with no one base, but would do it in other situations as he called Judge a “bad boy” according to Jorge Castillo of ESPN.
“I would be a fool to just let him beat up on us. …It's no disrespect to anyone,” Washington said. “You gotta do what you gotta do. I mean, he's a bad boy. You just can't come into this ballpark and let him beat up on you if you don't have to.”
Yankees' Judge on the intentional walks
It does make some sense to intentionally walk Judge since he is in the midst of a monstrous season where he leads the majors with 41 home runs and 103 runs batted in (RBIs) while having a .322 batting average. Toronto's manager in John Schneider was asked about giving multiple free passes to Judge where he said that the face of New York ball club is “in a different category” according to Bryan Hoch of MLB.com.
“I honestly didn’t feel like seeing him swing,” Schneider said. “He’s in a different category, I think, than anyone else in the league. He can flip the script of a game with one swing.”
Despite Judge knowing the type of player he is and can be still, he did reportedly express some shock after the game for being intentionally walked three times in the contest, especially the one where there was no one base with two outs. He would even say to the media after the game that “hopefully it doesn't happen again” according to Sports Illustrated.
“Just how early it was in the game,” Judge said. “It was still pretty close at the time. So, I guess with two outs there, I think they were just looking to maybe getting out the next guy. But Wells came up with the big hit so hopefully it doesn't happen again. We'll see.”
At any rate, the Yankees are 67-46 which puts them first in the AL East as they start the series against the Angels Wednesday as they will play three contests.
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