CLEVELAND -- About an hour and a half before the first pitch of the Yankees’ series finale against the Guardians on Wednesday, Aaron Judge captured the attention of the visitors' clubhouse at Progressive Field.
It was just in a bit of an unconventional way.
The TVs in the clubhouse, which almost always show MLB Network, were showing a segment that featured a highlight reel of Judge’s four-hit performance on Tuesday, which raised his batting average to .411.
Most of the time, the TVs serve as background noise to the conversations and milling about that occurs in the clubhouse. But when Judge came on the TV, Oswaldo Peraza, Pablo Reyes and Jorbit Vivas stopped their conversation and intently watched as the crew broke down Judge’s feats.
Judge provided that trio (and the 23,981 in attendance at Progressive Field) with an encore on Wednesday, when he went 2-for-4 in New York’s 5-1 win over Cleveland. Judge is now slashing .415/.513/.734 through 94 at-bats. He is also tied for the MLB lead in RBIs (26) with the Mets’ Pete Alonso.
“More excellence,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said.
Judge jumpstarted things in the first inning with a booming triple off Guardians starter Luis L. Ortiz. The triple left his bat at 110.9 mph and went 424 feet to dead center field, and came mere inches away from being his eighth home run of the year. Instead he had to settle for the sixth triple of his career and just his third since 2018.
Judge added his second hit with a one-out single in the second.
“He never ceases to amaze up there,” Boone said of Judge.
That triple was part of a busy first inning for the Yankees. Ben Rice led the frame off with a walk (and came around to score on Judge’s triple), while Cody Bellinger walked and Paul Goldschmidt socked an RBI double to give the Yankees a 2-0 lead before recording an out.
They added two more runs an inning later on RBI singles from Rice and Goldschmidt.
Through 25 games last year, Judge was hitting .191 with just 18 hits. He recorded more than one-third of that total in Cleveland by going 7-for-12 over the three-game series.
While Judge is doing much better than last April, he doesn’t feel that he’s doing anything extremely different.
“It’s baseball, you’re going to have that,” he said. “You guys could be talking to me when I'm having a tough month and I'd be saying the same thing. It’s all about keeping things simple. I wanted to have a better April than last year.”
While Goldschmidt helped Judge out on the field by driving him in, Judge said that the 37-year-old is also an asset off the field as well.
“Having him behind me makes my life easier,” Judge said. “But also having him and [Giancarlo Stanton] as people to talk to and go through scouting reports [is great]. He’s a pro.”
Goldschmidt also finished with a multihit game to back Carlos Rodón, who tossed seven sparkling innings. Rodón struck out eight and allowed just one unearned run across four hits and two walks.
It’s the second straight solid start for Rodón, who threw six scoreless innings against the Rays his last time out.
“Another strong one for him,” Boone said. “I thought he got into a really good groove and got better as he went. He had a really good presence with his fastball.”
For eight years, Rodón watched Judge from afar with the White Sox and Giants. And while he said he enjoyed going against Judge, he said he enjoys being his teammate more.
“This week, he’s Tony Gwynn. Next week, he might be Hank Aaron,” Rodón said with a laugh.
This is Goldschmidt’s first year being a teammate of Judge’s after battling against him for the first nine years of Judge’s career. Now he gets to reap the benefits of hitting behind one of the best players on the planet.
“It’s fun to watch,” Goldschmdit said. “He’s the ultimate professional and leader and is the captain for a reason.”
The game helped the Yankees (15-10) avoid their first sweep of the season after coming out flat against the Guardians on Monday and Tuesday. They’ll now turn their sights to the Blue Jays (12-12), who have been nipping at their heels in the AL East.
“We’ve got a good team,” Goldschmidt said. “We’ve got a lot of confidence, but there’s a long way to go.”