Numbers rarely do justice to the performances displayed on the field, the figures often unable to quantify what is an art.
But sometimes those numbers capture the moment, and this might be one of those times: Through 18 games, Aaron Judge is hitting an MLB-best .409 with an MLB-best .519 on-base percentage, an MLB-best .803 slugging percentage and an AL-best 21 RBIs.
The Yankees captain authored a historic season in 2022, one-upped himself in 2024 and is threatening to do it again, his latest feat of strength lugging the club on his back and providing the tiebreaking home run in a 4-3 win to complete a sweep of the Royals in front of 43,720 in The Bronx on Wednesday night.
The best hitter in the game — just ask Juan Soto — stepped up to the plate four times and reached four times, his largest at-bat the one that decided the game.
In the seventh inning of a tie game, Judge saw a sinker from John Schreiber that cut across the plate and demolished it into the bullpen in right-center for his seventh homer of the season.
Mid-April is too soon for pace calculators, but if extrapolated he would be on track for 63.
“He’s a superhuman,” said Fernando Cruz, who pitched through some drama in the final two innings to record his first career save.
“It’s truly amazing,” said Cody Bellinger, whose diving catch in right ended the game. “I just feel like in any situation, he’s going to come out on top.”
“This is what he does every year, it seems like,” said Clarke Schmidt, who was solid in his season debut.
Judge ground a single in the first, blasted a two-out double in the third and was intentionally walked in the fourth. He has reached base multiple times in each of his past nine games and 12 of his past 13 games.
He set the franchise home run mark in 2022 and posted better numbers two seasons later, when he finished with 58 homers, 144 RBIs and a .458 OBP.
He is off to a far better start this year.
“I try not to look at any of that stuff,” Judge said about his numbers. “I want to get on base — that’s the biggest thing.”
Can Judge, who continues to crank up numbers that seem impossible, possibly sustain this pace?
“Nothing’s really going to surprise me, so I’m not going to put a ceiling on anything he does,” manager Aaron Boone said after a game for which that final blast would prove to be enough.
Yankees pitching impressed. Schmidt went surprisingly deep in covering 5 ²/₃ innings after his longest rehab start encompassed four innings — and Mark Leiter Jr., Cruz and Bellinger did the rest.
Leiter struck out two in 1 ¹/₃ perfect innings before Boone asked for length from Cruz because Devin Williams and Luke Weaver had pitched on back-to-back days.
The ninth was dicey. Maikel Garcia reached second before MJ Melendez drilled a liner that hooked away from Bellinger, but the excellent athlete chased it down and made a tumbling catch to record a save of his own.
The Yankees (11-7) finished a 4-2 homestand before leaving for Tampa (and Steinbrenner Field) and will arrive with momentum.
After falling behind in the first inning, they grabbed the lead and padded it because two struggling hitters came through.
In the third, it was Anthony Volpe (who entered play in a 2-for-23 slide) who smacked a two-run double. In the fourth, it was Bellinger (who entered in a 5-for-43 skid) who snuck an RBI double down the first base line.
The Royals responded against Schmidt in the fifth, when a Drew Waters single, Kyle Isbel triple into right-center and a groundout from Jonathan India plated two.
That would conclude the scoring until the seventh.
With the reigning AL MVP runner-up in Bobby Witt Jr. standing at shortstop, the reigning AL MVP reminded of the pecking order.
“Tonight was the most locked-in I felt [he was] at-bat wise, where he was just on everything,” Boone said.
“We’re getting there,” Judge said with a smile.
“He’s Captain America,” Schmidt said.
