It is typical for the day’s starting pitcher to address reporters before any other players speak when the Yankees clubhouse opens to the media following games.
But on Friday night, starter Luke Weaver, one of the newest Yankees, was willing to break with postgame custom minutes after the power-hitting Aaron Judge once more inscribed his name into the franchise record books.
“Don’t you guys want to talk to Judge?” Weaver said, while shooting a head nod toward his towering teammate who grinned back at him across the room.
Although joking, Weaver was prepared to give Judge the benefit of the doubt because of the slugger’s three home run effort that helped the Bronx Bombers beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 7-1, extending their miserable season for at least one night.
The Yankees’ postseason odds have always been extremely bleak, but Judge eventually declared, “We’re not out of it.”
Judge put on a home run-hitting exhibition that included something that had never happened in the franchise’s 121-season history in his desperate, last-ditch attempt to save New York’s season.
For the first time ever in a single season, Judge’s three-homer game was the most such games by a Yankees player.
“[That’s] greatness doing special things,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “You know, those are kind of crazy things that happen, but it’s just a special player.
“Somebody’s got to have that. It’s not surprising, I don’t think, to anyone in this room, that it’s Aaron Judge.”
The right fielder for the Yankees blasted three home runs as well on August 2023, helping his team to a 9-1 victory over the Washington Nationals.
“It’s nice to be on the right side of that,” said Weaver, an eight-year veteran who made his first career start against the Yankees in May while with the Cincinnati Reds. New York selected him off waivers from Seattle nearly two weeks ago.
“A historical night, just to see three homers,” Weaver added. “I mean, the guy hits the ball so hard, I’m surprised he doesn’t have a bazillion homers anyway.”
After two young Yankees at the bottom of the lineup, Oswaldo Cabrera and Oswald Peraza, reached base on a pair of singles, Judge hit his first home run in the third inning.
Judge turned on a first-pitch sinker with one out and two on, hitting it 420 feet away, just beyond the Yankees’ bullpen in right-center field, off a billboard.
After two innings, Judge hit his second home run, which landed close to his first one, into the stands. The two-run blast made it 6-0 in favor of the Yankees.
As Judge hit a 383-foot liner into the second deck in right field to score New York’s seventh run, the Yankees’ third home run in the seventh inning effectively sealed their victory.
Moments later, time was briefly called in the middle of second baseman Gleyber Torres’ at-bat for the Yankees as Judge came out of the dugout to give a curtain call.
Judge finished the game 4-for-4 overall after adding a first-inning base hit to left field that he extended into a double. The outfielder, who missed 51 games in the middle of the season due to a toe injury, continued to advance in his comeback with the offensive display.
When asked if he thought the evening might have a memorable moment, Judge gave a vague response.
Judge not only tied a single-season record for home runs hit by big leaguers who have missed 50 or more games in a season, but he also had his historic second three-homer game of the year. Rudy York, who played in just 104 games with the Detroit Tigers in 1937, scored 35 home runs, matching Judge’s total from 2023.
