NEW YORK -- A quick glance at the box score from the Red Sox's 5-4, 10-inning loss on Thursday night shows that Yankees slugger Aaron Judge walked three times in five plate appearances.

However, Boston manager Alex Cora and his pitchers take offense to the notion they are dancing around Judge, who is chasing history each time he steps into the box.

With one out and nobody on base in the bottom of the ninth in a tie game, Cora had reliever Matt Barnes go after Judge. If Cora had called for an intentional walk, nobody would have said that was a bad baseball move.

The decision was almost costly. The right-handed-hitting masher came close to tying Roger Maris' American League home run record with the much-anticipated No. 61, swatting a 113 mph shot to deep center field. A history-seeking crowd of 43,123 roared with anticipation. But Kiké Hernández drifted back and caught the 404-foot shot in front of the wall. It would have been a home run in eight other parks, and the drive had an expected batting average of .840, per Statcast.

“Deep fly ball to center field. When he hits it, he’s a good hitter and a big guy. I don’t know. I thought it had a chance,” said Barnes, who avoided following in the footsteps of Tracy Stallard, the Boston pitcher who gave up No. 61 to Maris in 1961.

The Red Sox are embracing the act of trying to stop Judge in his tracks this weekend.

“With all due respect to Aaron Judge -- he’s a great person and he’s having an unbelievable season -- I’m trying to get him out,” Barnes said. “I frankly don’t care about history. We’ve got a ballgame to win. If I give up a homer, game’s over, right? I’m sure he does it at some point this season, and I’ll congratulate him and everything.

“If I go out there and I get caught up in the history of what he can potentially be doing and I start tip-toeing around the at-bat, I’m probably going to hang something. Or I’m probably going to miss middle. My stuff is going to get worse, and then I’m probably going to give up a home run. I’m going to come after him."

Michael Wacha, the ace of the Red Sox this season, opened the bottom of the first inning by walking Judge on four pitches. That, however, was not his intent. Why would it be? After Thursday, Judge is 0-for-15 with 10 strikeouts lifetime against Wacha.

If anything, Wacha was annoyed by the walk to Judge, and then hitting No. 2 batter Anthony Rizzo. Wacha worked out of the jam with some double-play magic, one of four the Red Sox induced. Three of those came during an inning in which Judge had already walked.

“I do not like leadoff walks," Wacha said. "I don't like hitting guys."

After Wacha elicited more groans from the Yankees’ faithful by walking Judge on a 3-2 pitch in the third, the veteran righty had the satisfaction of punching out the megastar on a five-pitch at-bat in the fifth, capping it off with a nasty changeup.

“That’s what the good ones do,” Cora said. “You have to move the ball around. The tough part is, [Judge] is so disciplined that he will take his walks. Obviously, it’s not easy, but we’re going to attack the way we’re going to attack, and if he takes his walks, he takes them. Like [John] Schreiber gave him a 2-0 fastball, and he missed it. After that, you play with the situation, and if he chases, he chases. I think, overall, we did a good job.”

There was definitely a different feel in the air. Cora noticed that Yankee Stadium became as quiet as a tennis match when Judge was at the plate. The crowd didn’t want to disrupt his concentration.

“It gets very quiet on every pitch,” Cora said. “They boo every ball. They’re having fun with it, [big crowd], Yankee Stadium, that’s the way it should be.”

Judge has three more games in this series to try to tie and pass Maris against his team’s top rival. If not, he will move on to facing the Blue Jays, Orioles and Rangers.

“That’s why we play the game,” Wacha said. “Whenever a guy is chasing history, more eyes are definitely locked in. Just try to approach it just like any other time facing these guys, continue making pitches and pitching tough.”