{"id":661892,"date":"2026-04-04T01:06:33","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T01:06:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/661892\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T01:06:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T01:06:33","slug":"aaron-judge-hits-mammoth-homer-in-first-yankee-stadium-at-bat-of-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/661892\/","title":{"rendered":"Aaron Judge hits mammoth homer in first Yankee Stadium at-bat of season"},"content":{"rendered":"

If the Yankees have proven anything in recent seasons, it\u2019s that they can withstand every setback imaginable \u2014 except a long-term injury to Aaron Judge.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was the toe injury Judge suffered at Dodger Stadium that derailed their 2023 season and caused them to miss the playoffs and last year, when there was concern the flexor strain in his right elbow might be especially serious, the second half of the season was in doubt.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So when Judge got drilled on the right forearm \u2014 near his wrist \u2014 with a 98 mph four-seam fastball from Miami\u2019s Eury P\u00e9rez with the bases loaded in the bottom of the second, the initial worry was high.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve broken my wrist like that,\u2019\u2019 Judge said after an 8-2 home-opening win over the Marlins<\/a> in The Bronx. \u201cThat\u2019s always my main concern. Once everything is intact, get to first and let [Cody Bellinger] do his job.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Aaron Boone, not surprisingly, bolted off the bench before he realized Judge wasn\u2019t hurt.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"YankeesYankees right fielder Aaron Judge (99) tosses his bat after he hits a solo home run during the first inning on April 3, 2026. Charles Wenzelberg\/New York Post<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt he was probably OK, but I tend to jump up quicker when it\u2019s him,\u201d Boone said. \u201cYou always hold your breath anytime one runs up and in like that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Judge did shake off the drilling and it was part of another superb day for the Yankees, who improved to 6-1.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It started with the Yankees showing up dressed in suits, as Ben Rice noted that Judge texted the team on Thursday to arrive in their best attire.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dressed for success, the team delivered \u2014 including Judge.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He entered the game just 3-for-24 with 11 strikeouts on the season, but went deep in his first at-bat in The Bronx, taking P\u00e9rez deep to left field for a two-run shot after the Marlins scored a run in the top of the inning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He drove in another run the hard way in the second, as the hit by pitch forced in Jos\u00e9 Caballero to make it 4-1.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And Judge \u2014 2-for-3 with three RBIs on the day \u2014 walked and singled later in the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"JudgeJudge rounds the bases on his homer. Charles Wenzelberg\/New York Post<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re finding different ways to score runs,\u2019\u2019 Judge said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve also found different ways to win games without arguably the best hitter in the sport finding his groove.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Two of his three hits on the West Coast trip were home runs and Judge has shown that he can overcome even the slowest of starts to a season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGo beyond the box score with the Bombers\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Yankees by Greg Joyce, exclusively on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Both his first-inning homer and his base hit in the eighth clocked in at over 100 mph according to Statcast. It was the first time in the young season Judge cracked triple digits twice in a game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So while Ben Rice and Giancarlo Stanton have largely carried the Yankees\u2019 offense in the early going, Judge will no doubt do the same for the lineup, and it may have started Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If the Yankees have proven anything in recent seasons, it\u2019s that they can withstand every setback imaginable \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":661893,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2376],"tags":[106,5,58,4,1690,62,2548,2547,185,142],"class_list":{"0":"post-661892","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-miami-marlins","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-yankees","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkyankees","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-yankees"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116343762345673889","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661892","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=661892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/661893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}