For the first time since he very nearly signed with the Giants last offseason, Aaron Judge and the New York Yankees are in San Francisco for a weekend series. The Giants and Judge were close enough to a deal that an erroneous report said it appeared he was headed to San Francisco, complete with an “Arson Judge” typo.
Friday marked Judge’s first career game at Oracle Park (NY 6, SF 2) as the Yankees and Giants opened their three-game set. He was greeted with a healthy dose of boos before each of his at-bats. Hey, if you turn down a $360 million free agent contract, fans aren’t going to like you. That’s just the way it goes.
The boos made no difference. Judge clobbered a three-run home run in his second at-bat and then added a solo homer in his third at-bat. He leads the majors with 20 long balls.
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Those home runs cap off an absurd month of May for Judge. He entered Friday having hit .355/.479/.871 with 12 doubles and 12 home runs in May. That followed a down April in which Judge slashed .207/.340/.414 with six home runs. We were all trying to figure out what was wrong with him, and it turned out all he needed was a little time to get on track.
The Giants reportedly offered Judge the same nine-year, $360 million contract he signed to return to the Yankees. Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner got personally involved in the negotiations and met Judge’s asking price, and named him captain. Judge grew up not too far from the Bay Area in Linden, California, but the draw of going home was not enough to leave New York.
New York goes into this weekend’s series with the American League’s best record at 39-19. The Judge-less Giants are 29-28, though they have won 10 of their last 13 games.
