{"id":648004,"date":"2026-03-28T04:35:26","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T04:35:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/648004\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T04:35:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T04:35:26","slug":"aaron-judge-takes-advantage-of-abs-before-launching-key-yankees-homer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/648004\/","title":{"rendered":"Aaron Judge takes advantage of ABS before launching key Yankees homer"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 Aaron Judge hasn\u2019t needed any help at the plate, having won three of the past four AL MVP awards with some of the most productive seasons in history.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But for years, he\u2019s been the victim of more than his fair share of called strikes that have appeared to be below the zone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So the automated ball-strike system figured to be especially valuable for him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Friday, Judge used it for the first time and \u2014 not surprisingly \u2014 it resulted in a home run.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The key hit in a 3-0 win over the Giants<\/a> at Oracle Park, the homer was set up after Judge got ahead of lefty Robbie Ray 1-0 in his third at-bat, and Ray followed with a slider that was called a strike by home plate umpire Chad Fairchild.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With Paul Goldschmidt on second in a scoreless game in the top of the sixth, Judge challenged the call and it proved to be a fraction of an inch low.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He eventually worked the count full before slamming a 405-foot homer to left to give the Yankees the lead.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AaronAaron Judge hits a home run during the Yankees-Giants game on March 27, 2026. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought the call was gonna stand,\u201d Judge said. \u201cIt was a close one.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

But he believed the challenge was worth it, with a runner in scoring position in a tie game and Ray \u2014 along with Cam Schlittler \u2014 rolling.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not gonna sit here and challenge every one I think is close, but in a big spot, if I\u2019ve got a chance to flip the count, I\u2019m gonna do it,\u2019\u2019 Judge said. \u201cI\u2019ve still got to go up there and do the job as a hitter. All it takes is one pitch \u2014 like we saw in that at-bat.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AaronAaron Judge celebrates during the Yankees-Giants game on March 27, 2026. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n

Cody Bellinger knows better than most how often pitches below Judge\u2019s knees have been called strikes, at least since last season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s so tall, sometimes he gets rung up on that,\u201d Bellinger said. \u201cI see it since I hit behind him all the time. [ABS] is gonna be good for him. He knows the [strike] zone really well.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

As Judge noted, though, simply winning the challenge was no guarantee of success in the at-bat.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

But it didn\u2019t hurt.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Still getting accustomed to the ABS system, Judge called it \u201cweird\u201d to use it for the first time in a regular-season game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a part of the game and you\u2019ve got to get used to it,\u2019\u2019 said Judge, who went hitless and struck out four times in the opener and was 0-for-2 with another strikeout in his first two at-bats Friday. \u201cI\u2019m a hitter. I\u2019ve got to focus on hitting.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

It worked well Friday, as Judge got the fourth hit of his career against Ray, all of which have been home runs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And it was Judge\u2019s fourth homer in five career games in San Francisco \u2014 against the team he grew up rooting for in nearby Linden, Calif.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This one, of course, was different and showed how much more dangerous he may become.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can use it as a weapon, but you\u2019ve still got to play the game,\u2019\u2019 Judge said. \u201cTo have a challenge in your back pocket is nice in certain situations, [like] high-leverage. We\u2019ll see how it goes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 Aaron Judge hasn\u2019t needed any help at the plate, having won three of the past…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":648005,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2376],"tags":[106,5,4,1690,62,2548,2547,66,185,142],"class_list":{"0":"post-648004","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-yankees","8":"tag-aaron-judge","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-yankees","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkyankees","15":"tag-san-francisco-giants","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-yankees"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116304946152254189","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=648004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/648005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=648004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=648004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=648004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}