What Yankees’ Aaron Judge was thinking before issuing payback to Red Sox’s Joe Kelly

Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge was hitless for his career against Boston Red Sox reliever Joe Kelly before coming up big Tuesday, May 8, 2018 (5/8/18) against the reliever that the Yankees fought in April. Judge helped the Yankees beat the Red Sox, 3-2, in the first game of a three-game series at Yankee Stadium.

NEW YORK — There was another loud roar from the packed house at Yankee Stadium, 45,773 strong on Tuesday night, when Yankees left fielder Brett Gardner worked a seventh-inning walk to load the bases with one out in a tie game.

Aaron Judge walked toward the plate, then was forced to wait as the Red Sox made a pitching change.

It was obvious who was coming in to replace righty Heath Hembree when the Red Sox bullpen door opened and the ballpark buzz instantly transformed to deafening boos.

Coming in to face Judge was Red Sox reliever Joe Kelly, the new Bronx villain who ignited a bench-clearing brawl on April 11 at Fenway Park by drilling Yankees first baseman Tyler Austin with a pitch that was retaliation for a hard slide into second base.

Never one to lose focus, Judge concentrated on this moment instead of last month’s, and once again big No. 99 delivered.

Takeaways from Yankees win over Red Sox that forces tie atop AL East

Judge lined a tie-breaking single to left, Aaron Hicks scored from third base and the Yankees had a 3-2 lead that became a 3-2 win.

“You don’t forget (what happened in Boston), but you’ve got to move on,” Judge said. “You can’t live in the past. There’s nothing you can do about it. It happened. It got resolved. It’s time to play baseball.”

Judge’s mind during his at-bat was on nothing but finally winning a confrontation with Kelly.

They’d faced each other six previous times and Judge was hitless with three strikeouts. During their one previous encounter this season, Judge hit into a 6-4-3 double play.

“He’s got a really good fastball that he likes to kind of live up in the zone,” Judge said of Kelly. “It’s got good carry on it, so it’s kind of tough to get on top of it when it’s up in the zone. That plays well with his big curveball and he’s got a sharp little slider.

“In the past, he’s always tried to show fastball up, then go back to the slider. I was just trying to get something out over the plate that I could drive.

“In (Tuesday night’s) situation, bases loaded, one out, I’m in the driver’s seat. He’s got to throw something over the plate. He doesn’t walk to walk me. I was looking for something out over the plate to drive.”

Judge got what he was looking for, a 1-1 slider that caught too much of the plate, he creamed it between third and short for a single that was hit so hard that fairly speedy rookie Gleyber Torres was thrown out at the plate trying to score from second.

“It was a slider down, one that should have been a little more off (the plate),” Kelly said. (Judge) was able to get a bat on it, and obviously the base-hit scored the run.”

That one run put the Yankees ahead, and they held on to make it seven wins in a row and an incredible 16 in their last 17 games, this one pulling them into a tie for first atop the AL East standings with the Red Sox.

Once again, the Yankees relied on Judge, who issued a payback to Kelly while not thinking at all about what happened last month.

“We can’t get out of hand with stuff that happened in the past,” Judge said. “We’ve got to focus on what’s happening right now in that situation. We’ve got a pitcher on the mound with a good fastball and good off-speed pitches. It’s time to go out there and do our job.”

Randy Miller may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @RandyJMiller. Find NJ.com on Facebook.