Aaron Judge is a godsend for the Yankees
The New York Yankees have won several cinematic games recently. After two consecutive walk-offs at home, superstar slugger Aaron Judge deposited a seventh-inning grand slam into the left-field stands, giving the team a 5-4 lead over the Boston Red Sox that it never relinquished.
Judge, who broke his season-long 16-game homer-less streak with the clutch blast, spoke about breaking the drought, via YES Network.
“It’s just another day. I don’t really focus on hitting homers, I don’t focus on any of that, I got a job to do,” Judge said. “16 games, is that a lot? I don’t know. It’ll probably be longer at some point in my career.”
16 games with no homers isn’t a lot for the majority of MLB players, but Judge is in a class by himself. The California native leads the league with 52 homers, 130 RBI, 120 walk, and a 1.142 OPS.
Judge however, doesn’t pay attention to his stats.
Aaron Judge stays in the present moment with the Yankees
Judge emphasized that it’s essential to think about short-term goals throughout the season, as the 162-game marathon would be overwhelming to analyze all at once.
“You learn as you go. Each year is so different, each experience is so different, but you try to cut the season into small sample sizes,” the 32-year-old said. “You don’t look at it as a whole, or look at it as your past 16 games, or past eight games, it’s just ‘what do I gotta do today?’ Just go out there and do it.”
New York is now three games up on the Baltimore Orioles atop the AL East, its biggest lead since June. However, Judge tries his best to not look at the standings.
“We were paying attention to the standings a couple weeks ago,” he admitted. “It kept going back and forth…We all kinda talked in this room and said ‘hey if we just focus on us and what we wanna do, we’ll be where we wanna be,’ so hopefully no one’s looking at the standings. I’m certainly not.”
Staying in the present moment can be rewarding, especially in Judge’s case. The Yankees’ dugout certainly didn’t complain after the 2022 AL MVP’s blast, via Pinstripe Alley’s Jeff Middleton.
