All eyes were on Yankees slugger Aaron Judge Tuesday night in Toronto. His mere presence (and premier power) draws a lot of attention anyways. But, it was probably a little more this time around because of his darting eyes during an at-bat from Monday night.
It happened right before he slugged a 462-foot tank. While all this “Is he cheating?” business was blown way out of proportion, it didn’t stop social media from latching on to it for a while. So what did the Yankee Captain do in his first opportunity to take the field since that “incident”?
Well, he hit another moonshot. This one traveled 448 feet and over the batter’s eye in center field at the Rogers Centre. Take a look at this bad boy:
Aaron Judge sent this one to the moon ??? pic.twitter.com/zmf1wzjx1X
— YES Network (@YESNetwork) May 17, 2023
This is the kind of stuff that happens when you piss Judge off, folks. Yankees fans are certainly here for it. I also love the side view from the YES Network in the above video. You know, to confirm that he doesn’t need to look toward the dugout before demolishing baseballs.
But, there’s more to this story. Above the batter’s eye where Judge’s ball landed is a sign with a maple leaf on it. The slugger’s homer actually broke a piece of the sign. Since he generated an exit velocity of 113.1 mph, we’re not at all surprised that this was the result:
Aaron Judge broke the maple leaf in center field pic.twitter.com/vwQtlyod91
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) May 17, 2023
Once again, this is what happens when you get the reigning American League MVP angry.
This homer gave the Yankees an eighth-inning lead, something they’d keep to beat the Blue Jays for the second straight night. As for Judge, this blast was his third in two games, giving him 11 dingers on the year thus far.
He’s also slashing .300/.421/.833 with five home runs, 12 RBI, and nine runs scored since returning from the Injured List on May 9th (38 plate appearances). So, yea — Judge is definitely back, and nothing is safe. Not even ballpark signs that are 400-plus feet away from home plate.
You can reach Matt Musico at matt.musico@xlmedia.com. You can follow him on Twitter: @mmusico8.
