Aaron Judge said he would be ready for opening day.
He was correct.
Judge started the season long behind with a couple of hits in the Yankees’ 4-1 win, shortened by the rain, Thursday over the Nationals.
They were enough to impress one of his new teammates.
“Those were two pure shots on the ball,” Gerrit Cole said of the judge’s work at the plate.
The right fielder was sidelined in March after being diagnosed with a fractured rib and collapsed lung that the judge likely suffered on a diving play last September.
General manager Brian Cashman said the rib injury would have kept Judge out until “summer.” When baseball returned after the COVID-19 shutdown that was prolonged by a labor dispute, Judge dealt with a stiff neck.
But he hit three home runs again in two exhibition games and stayed warm Thursday against Washington’s Max Scherzer.
He started a 108 mph single to the left with one out on top of the first and scored on Giancarlo Stanton’s gigantic home run later in the inning that gave the Yankees and Cole a 2-0 lead.
“Overall, this was an opportunity to see our offense when everyone is healthy,” said Judge. “I’m just trying to get to the base for the big hitters behind me. We demonstrated it tonight. We leave [Stanton] do your thing. “
Judge reappeared in the third with one out after Tyler Wade’s opening walk and Aaron Hicks strikeout.
This time, Judge doubled to the left and the speedy Wade, who started at second base in place of DJ LeMahieu, turned to score and put the Yankees back for two runs.
Judge had a chance to again extend the Yankees’ lead to fifth with runners in the corners against Scherzer and one out, but he struck out. Stanton picked it up with a single drive after Gleyber Torres walked to load the bases.
The judge insisted during spring 2.0 training that his neck was not a problem and on Tuesday he declared himself “ready to go.”
Judge limited himself to 102 games a year ago in part due to left oblique strain and played just 112 games in 2018 due to a fractured right wrist.
In this shortened season, a similar extended absence would be especially damaging to Judge and the Yankees, and showed why it is so important to their lineup again on Thursday.
Aaron Boone said he was pleased with what he saw from both Judge and Stanton in the middle of the lineup.
“One of the things that I felt really good about was that this team was ready to go and those guys are leading the way, in a sense,” Boone said of the two hitters. “They had quality at-bats to confirm the work we’ve been seeing. Judge had a couple of good at-bats.
But Judge also admitted that there was something strange about the environment.
“It was nice to have some real baseball back, but it was definitely weird,” Judge said of the empty stadium. “It was weird with a team celebrating a World Series championship and none of their fans were there to celebrate with them.”
In the end, however, it was fine.
.
