Yankees' Giancarlo Stanton demonstrates how important it is to protect Aaron Judge in the lineup
Aaron Judge of the Yankees celebrates his seventh inning home run against the Texas Rangers with teammate Giancarlo Stanton at Yankee Stadium on Sunday, Aug. 11, 2024. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Texas Rangers manager Bruce Bochy had just ordered an intentional walk of Aaron Judge in the fifth inning at Yankee Stadium on Sunday when pitcher Andrew Heaney looked from the mound to the dugout.
Heaney knew what was coming. With Giancarlo Stanton due up, Bochy removed the lefthander and called in righty Jose Leclerc with two outs and two on.
It was the 13th time this season and sixth time in the last eight days that an opposing manager held up four fingers to give Judge a base. The previous five times, the strategy worked, and the Yankees did not score.
This time Stanton — after falling behind 0-and-2 — hooked a low-and-away 2-and-2 slider, crushed it at 114.9 mph and drilled it 405 feet into the leftfield seats for a three-run home run. A two-run Yankees lead became a five-run bulge in their nail-biting 8-7 win before a crowd of 45,318.
That crowd didn’t come to the ballpark to see Judge walked intentionally. But as we pointed out in this space a week ago, Judge’s greatness is going to make this strategy more attractive to opposing managers down the stretch and into October.
The Yankees have to make teams pay when they pass on pitching to Judge. That’s where Stanton comes in.
“It’s part of the game,” Stanton said after hitting his 20th home run. “I mean, he’s an all-time talent. So that happens. I’ve got to do what happened today in order for it not to happen.”
Said Judge: “I’ve been in the position before where they’ve walked some guys in front of me to face me. So it’s always a little sweeter when you can come through in those spots.”
No one is walking anyone to get to Judge these days.
With all due respect to hot-hitting Austin Wells — who has been getting the bulk of the at-bats behind Judge in the cleanup spot when the Yankees face a righthander — Stanton is one Yankee with the gravitas to make managers think twice and pitchers flinch.
Stanton, once thought of as an all-time talent himself before injuries made him an expensive question mark, simply looks like a cleanup hitter.
“You’ve got to want that,” he said. “You’ve got to want that opportunity and be able to capitalize on it. Otherwise, it’s going to keep happening. Whether it’s me or a lefty behind him, depending on who’s starting, it’s important for us to capitalize on that.”
The other possibility to protect Judge is Juan Soto, who hit a 110.1-mph, 413-foot solo homer to right in the third and an equally majestic 106.6-mph, 406-foot solo blast to right-center in the seventh. Soto has 30 home runs.
After Soto’s second home run, with the Yankees leading 7-3, Bochy had lefthander Andrew Chafin pitch to Judge, who hammered his 42nd home run (108.4 mph, 374 feet to right-center) to complete a 3-for-3 day.
Soto-Judge is a pretty good combo. Judge-Soto would be, too. But Aaron Boone — while saying he has considered it — hasn’t flip-flopped them in the batting order so Soto can protect Judge. That leaves it up to Wells against righthanded starters and Stanton against lefties.
Again, all respect to Wells, who is batting .362 with two homers and 13 RBIs in 15 games (14 starts) in the No. 4 spot. It’s part of an offensive maturation for the rookie that gives the Yankees hope they will have an All-Star behind the plate for years to come.
But no manager is going to pitch to Judge because they fear Wells. It’s just not going to happen. And when the stakes are higher — say against the Orioles in the battle for the AL East in the regular season’s last week or in the playoffs — Wells is going to get a tough lefty reliever after an intentional walk to Judge.
After going 0-for-2 against Heaney, Wells has nine hits — all singles — in 35 at-bats vs. lefthanders. All eight of his homers have come against righthanders.
Stanton? When he’s healthy and at his slugging best, Big G is as fearsome as they come. Of course, his health is a big if, and his streakiness is well known to Yankees fans.
One of the criticisms you hear about Stanton is that he seems to hit prodigious homers when the Yankees are way behind or way ahead. He did just that on Saturday in Game 2 of a doubleheader when he hit a 451-foot two-run homer in the eighth with the Yankees trailing 9-1 in an eventual 9-4 loss.
The numbers back up that belief. With the Yankees ahead or behind by more than four runs this season going into Sunday, Stanton was 18-for-55 (.327) with six homers and a 1.071 OPS.
Aha, you exclaim! I knew it!
But that’s only part of the story. Because Stanton is such a streaky hitter (he also had a loud sacrifice fly on Sunday), even a garbage-time home run is significant because it could be a portent of big flies to come. Saturday’s blast begets Sunday’s blast and so on.
The Yankees already have seen how Stanton can carry them in a postseason (2020, six home runs in two rounds).
If Judge keeps getting the four-finger salute and Soto stays in the two-hole, the Yankees’ best hope to combat this strategy might be Stanton. It sure was on Sunday.
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.