Aaron Judge busted out of the longest homer-free stretch of his career in an enormous way on Friday.
His seventh-inning grand slam dug the New York Yankees out of a hole against the Boston Red Sox, giving the Bombers a 5-4 victory.
When prodded by reporters to reveal his feelings on breaking his 16-game power drought, Judge claimed to have no clue what they were talking about.
“Was it 16 games?” the 32-year-old slugger asked.
“Oh, I didn’t really know that,” he replied after receiving confirmation. “But it’s just another day. I really don’t focus on hitting homers — don’t focus on any of that. I got a job to do.”
Judge did a great job of deflecting with his answer, but one of his teammates wasn’t buying the act.
“I don’t know about that,” Friday’s starting pitcher, Clarke Schmidt, said about his captain’s comments, per the New York Post’s Mark W. Sanchez. “… Judge, he’s very aware of stuff like that.”
Whether or not Judge was pretending he didn’t know how long it had been since his last homer is irrelevant to fans, though. They’re just ecstatic to have a win over the Sox and Judge back in the long-ball column.
Another personal accolade Judge would surely say he doesn’t think about is the AL MVP Award. As Judge’s lack of power persisted, the media started extolling Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., seeding the ground for a possible upset in the MVP voting.
Judge’s grand slam could shut such talk down for good. He now has 130 RBI to go along with a ridiculous 1.143 OPS. Witt has 99 RBI and a .975 OPS — great numbers, but not close to Judge’s output.
“I’m just trying to do my thing,” Judge said.
And that thing he does might just earn him a second MVP in three years.