Ron Washington wasn’t going to let Aaron Judge get a hit early on Wednesday night.
Judge, though, didn’t seem too bothered by the Los Angeles Angels manager’s strategy.
Washington opted to have Judge intentionally walked twice in the first two innings of the New York Yankees’ 1-0 win over the Angels on Monday night in Anaheim.
As the second walk, which loaded the bases, was called, Judge couldn’t help but tip his cap toward Washington — who absolutely loved it and erupted in laughter.
The strategy worked for the Angels as Cody Bellinger flied out with two outs.
Judge returned to the plate in the fifth inning and flied out to right. He then struck out looking in the seventh inning, which was his final at-bat of the game.
The Yankees jumped up in the first inning after Anthony Volpe plated Paul Goldschmidt on a bases loaded sacrifice fly. That ended up being enough to get the job done. The Yankees held on the rest of the way to grab the one-run win and complete the series sweep. The win, their ninth in the past 10 games, pushed the Yanks to 35-20 on the season. The Angels have lost five straight and sit at 25-30.
It makes sense why Washington wouldn’t want to let Judge up to the plate. Judge entered Wednesday holding a league-best .395 batting average with 18 home runs and 47 RBI. He also has 81 hits and a .488 on-base percentage, both of which are the best in MLB. Stopping Judge isn’t really much of an option.
Judge had a hit in Tuesday’s 3-2 win over the Angels, and he had a hit and scored twice in Monday’s 5-1 win.
So for the final game of the series, Washington decided to try and avoid Judge altogether. That may not be a permanent solution, but it limited the potential damage and gave him a good laugh Wednesday. That’s at least something.
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