Aaron Judge Makes History as Yankees Salvage Series Against White Sox

Sorry about this morning, there were several technical issues I was dealing with, not the least of which was I had the Bernie Williams story scheduled for the wrong day. That was supposed to go out Friday. So, while I was dealing with the issues, I didn't realize the Bernie story went out, and thus, I can’t send another newsletter for12 hours. Hence, here’s the recap from last night. Lets finally get to it.

Aug. 14: Yankees 10, White Sox 2

It’s hard to comprehend where the Yankees would be right now without Aaron Judge and Juan Soto.

They are the most lethal combination in MLB, one of the greatest duos in MLB history, and that was on full display once against Wednesday. The Yankees were trailing 2-1 after six sleepy innings before erupting for three runs in the seventh and six more in the eighth to turn what had been a frustrating night into a laugher against a team that has been laughed at all season.

And as has been the case all year, it was Batman and Superman leading the way. Soto hit his fourth homer in two games to get the Yankees on the board in the first, and Judge hit a three-run laser to left for his 300th in the eighth.

For the series, Soto reached base 12 times in 15 plate appearances (eight walks, four hits which were all homers, five RBI) and became the first player in MLB history to have four homers and draw at least least seven walks in a three-game series. Judge was on base 11 times in 15 plate appearances (six hits, five walks with four RBI). Those two alone were on base 23 times and drove in nine runs while the rest of the team reached base 30 times and drove in seven runs.

Judge hit his 300 home runs in just 955 games, way faster than Ralph Kiner of the Pirates who held the previous lowest game total at 1,087. In terms of at bats, Judge did it in 3,431, exactly 400 fewer than it took Babe Ruth to hit his 300th, and 452 faster than Kiner.

“It’s a great achievement,” Judge said. “I’ve been in the game a little while now, I guess. We still got a long way to go. But like I said a couple days ago, I was hoping it would come in a win, and it came in a big win for us where we were kind of down for a little bit and couldn’t get really much going. So I was just excited that it was there in a big moment.”

What’s so impressive about this is Judge is doing it at a time when pitching has never been more overpowering in MLB. Ruth and Kiner weren’t facing the movement and speed that today’s hitters have to deal with, nor did they see a succession of relievers throwing 100 mph every night. Sorry, we can love the Babe and his legacy all we want, but it’s a different game in 2024 and what Judge is doing this season is absurd.

“What Aaron is doing is among a select few in the history of the game,” said Aaron Boone. “You start talking about these kinds of seasons he’s having; he’s a great player, great leader, and I think everyone’s really pumped in there that he got it done.”

What was so funny last night was that for the first time all year, Soto was intentionally walked, and it wasn’t even a stupid decision by newbie Chicago manager Grady Sizemore. At the time it was still reasonably close as the Yankees led 6-2 and had a man on second with one out. With a righty on the mound, Sizemore walked the lefty-swinging Soto in the hope that maybe they could get Judge to ground into a double play.

“It’s just pick your poison. I’m not trying to get to Judge,” Sizemore said. “I've got a base open. (Soto has) had four homers on us. I guess there is no solution or easy way out of that jam. Soto has definitely been the hotter of those two bats, even though Judge has been hot, too.”

Chad Kuhl’s first three pitches missed the strike zone and Judge took all three so it seemed like it was the old unintentional intentional walk. Kuhl’s fourth pitch wasn’t a strike either as it was a bit inside, but Judge still launched it out of the park.

“I don’t know what they were thinking,” Soto said. “I’m thinking, it’s 3-and-0, they’re going to bury a ball and throw it on the ground and walk him, too. They actually threw something close to the strike zone; I was really shocked.”

Honestly, it wasn’t a dumb idea. I mean really, as Sizemore said, what’s the difference pitching to Soto or Judge, they’re both stone-cold killers? He rolled the dice and Judge said OK, throw it over the plate and we’ll see. What we saw was the ball clear the fence in left in about half a second at 110.1 mph.

“I was mad about the intentional walk,” said Judge, which surprised me because he had to know the White Sox were in a tough spot there and looking at the series, Soto had done the bigger damage to that point. “It locks you in. But I get why he did it with the way Juan is swinging the bat.”

Soto and Judge. Judge and Soto. No matter how you decide to pitch to them, teams have been failing all year.

Here are my observations:

➤ The Yankees called up Will Warren to make his third spot start in the last three weeks. The rainout last Friday forced both Carlos Rodon and Gerrit Cole to pitch Saturday, so that created a hole for this game, and Warren was the choice. To get him onto the roster for the game, the Yankees had to make a move and it was a pretty easy one: They DFA’d Enyel De Los Santos.

➤ De Los Santos will forever be remembered as one of the worst trade deadline deals Brian Cashman has made as he provided five horrendous appearances and had a 14.21 ERA. Well done, Cash. Boone said it was a, “Tough call. Feel like he’s better than certainly the last couple results he’s had.” Yeah, and the roads are fine in the winter until we get a foot of snow. So far, here’s how Cashman’s deals have gone. Jazz Chisholm was looking great, but now he’s hurt inside of three weeks. And Mark Leiter Jr. has a 6.14 ERA pitching in the late innings, unlike De Los Santos who at least was shitting the bed earlier in games.

➤ Oswald Peraza - who was having a pretty lousy season until the last month or so when he caught fire at Triple-A - was also called up with Chisholm going on the IL. There was still nothing definitive regarding the injury to Chisholm’s elbow because for some reason, the richest franchise in MLB can’t get doctors to make a diagnosis in a timely manner. The guy was hurt Monday night, yet as of Wednesday Boone said they’re still waiting for the doctors to weigh in. We do know that he’s shut down from baseball activities, so that’s not great. Chisholm said he was feeling optimistic that this could be a minor thing, but of course, he’s new to the pinstripes and nothing is ever minor when it comes to injuries.

➤ Warren pitched pretty well, more in line with his MLB debut against the Phillies on July 30 than the clunker he threw against the Angels last week. He lasted five innings and allowed two runs on seven hits with no walks and five strikeouts. One of the runs he deserved as Gavin Sheets, who was a wrecking ball in this series, homered in the second to tie it at 1-1. The second run in the fourth he did not deserve. Trent Grisham misplayed a routine liner to center which turned into a double for Andrew Vaughn, and he eventually scored on a Sheets single.

➤ The offense was dead as Sox starter Davis Martin gave up just one run in 5.2 innings, but then the Sox awful bullpen - yes, it’s way worse than the Yankees’ which is saying something - pissed the game away by allowing nine runs on eight hits and three walks in the next 2.1 innings.

➤ The turning point came in the seventh. Oswaldo Cabrera led off with a single and stole second, though he should have been out. Sox second baseman Brooks Baldwin dropped the throw, the kind of play that has defined the Sox all season. After DJ LeMahieu uselessly whiffed for the first out, Alex Verdugo hit a long fly to right-center where Dominic Fletcher made a nice catch, but then fell to the ground. Cabrera, who was tagging, saw that as did third-base coach Luis Rojas and they were both on the same page. Cabrera sprinted to third and kept on going as Rojas waived him home to pull off a rarity, scoring from second on a fly ball.

➤ That seemed to energize the Yankees because Soto walked, Judge doubled, and Austin Wells drove them both home with a huge go-ahead two-run single and that opened the floodgates because in the eighth, the White Sox were hit was a tidal wave. Volpe, in a 1-for-31 nightmare, doubled and scored on Cabrera’s single, Verdugo doubled him home, Judge hit his three-run bomb, and Wells went back-to-back to make it 10-2.

The Yankees have a day off Thursday as they travel north to face the Tigers for two games in Detroit and then the two teams will head to Williamsport, Pa. on Sunday night to play in the annual Little League Classic, so this is a bit of a weird series.

The Yankees swept the Tigers way back on the first weekend of May in New York. The Tigers went into that series five games over .500 and were looking like a team that might contend in the AL Central. Instead, after they walked off the Mariners Wednesday, they’re five games under .500, are 14 games behind the Guardians, and eight games out in the wild-card chase.

The Tigers are a terrible offensive team, not quite as inept as the White Sox, but they rank 24th in OPS at .682 and 28th in on-base percentage at .296. Their best hitter, outfielder Riley Greene who leads them in homers, RBI and OPS, is on the IL and won’t play. They pitch a little better as they rank 13th in team ERA at 3.91, in part because of Jack Flaherty who they traded at the deadline, and because of Tarik Skubal who may be the frontrunner for AL Cy Young this season. He’s 14-4 with a 2.53 ERA, a 0.924 WHIP, and strikeout to walk ratio of 6.21, but the rest of this staff is weak.

The Tigers play the Mariners again Thursday looking to complete a sweep so they haven’t announced their starters for the series, but Skubal is probably going to pitch Sunday. Here’s what we know: Friday at 6:40 on YES the Yankees will throw Gerrit Cole (4.70 ERA); Saturday at 1:10 on YES it’s Carlos Rodon (4.18); and Sunday at 7:10 on ESPN, Marcus Stroman (4.01) will probably face Skubal.