How Yankees’ Aaron Judge celebrated 13th-inning, slump-busting, game-winning homer

Right fielder Aaron Judge was in an 0-for-15 slump before keying the Yankees’ 3-0 win over the Blue Jays in Toronto on Wednesday, June 6, 2018 (6/6/18) with a two-run, 13th-inning homer. It was his 17th home run of the season.

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TORONTO — Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge rolled the leather chair from the locker that he used this week at Rogers Centre back a few feet, then plopped his big frame in and finished dressing after a post-game shower.

As Judge buttoned his shirt, slipped on a pair of socks and tied his shoes, his eyes stayed focused on a flat screen TV that hung from a nearby wall.

No, Judge wasn’t watching replays of his game-winning homer, a two-run blast to left-center field that finally broke a scoreless tie in what would become a 3-0, 13-inning Yankees win over the Toronto Blue Jays.

This Judge game face was for another game that a lot of Yankees were interested in … Game 3 of the NBA Finals.

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Growing up in Northern California, Judge attended a few Golden State Warriors games, but he now calls himself a LeBron James fan.

“Best player in the world,” Judge said just prior to the Warriors holding off James’ Cleveland Cavaliers to go up 3-games-to-none in the best of seven.

Judge is up there in his sport and his latest heroics put an end to a hitless streak that included a dubious record that was set Monday in Detroit, most strikeouts in a doubleheader. He was 0-for-9 with eight Ks in the Yankees’ split with the Tigers, then was given a pre-DH scheduled day off on Tuesday that didn’t exactly clear his mind.

“Not really,” Judge said. “I wasn’t happy about it. You never want days off. It was something Booney talked to me about a week ago … (but) he’s the one making out the lineup. You can’t really fight that.”

On Wednesday night, Judge was 0-for-4 with a walk and a strikeout his first five times up and sitting on an 0-for-15 when he hit in 13th after Brett Gardner lined a one-out single to left field.

“I was just trying to get on base for the guys behind me,” Judge said.

Facing Jays righty Joe Biagini, Judge took an inside fastball for ball one, then swung through both a 94-mph fastball that was a tad inside and a slider that was outside to fall behind 1-2.

The next pitch was a slider over the plate that Judge fouled off to stay alive, then he got a big, slow curve that broke knee-high over the plate.

“I just knew in the back of my mind when I faced (Biagini) in years past, he does have a big breaking ball,” Judge said. “I just trying to (look for) something hard out over the plate that I could drive to right field. I stuck on fastball and slider away so I could do some damage on that … and if I see the curveball pop up, put a good swing on it.”

Judge hammered the curve well enough that it was a no-doubt homer.

“With two strikes, Judge keeps battling and got a pitch that he could do enough with and he rode it out of here,” manager Aaron Boone said.

And just like that, Judge’s 0-for-15 was gonzo, not that he was pressing even a little bit.

“You’ve got ups, you’ve got downs,” Judge said. “No matter how good or how bad you did, you get to wake up the next day and start all over.”

Easier said than done, but Judge is an expert at turning the page no matter how high his highs are or how low his lows are.

“He just deals with whatever comes his way as good as anyone that I’ve been around, so I never really get a sense that he’s pressing,” Boone said. “I thought I saw him one pitch during an at-bat take a pitch and I could tell he wasn’t happy. He probably got a little frustrated how he took it. Maybe he got a little overanxious or something, but he’s able to really calm himself down right away and I think it’s one of the traits that he has that’s better than anyone.”

Judge isn’t hitting for average like he did in the first half of his rookie record 52-homer season in 2017 – he’s at .274 after 58 games – but most of his numbers again are very impressive.

Among AL hitters, he’s tied for fifth with 17 homers, tied for fourth with 43 RBIs, second with 45 walks, third with a .401 on-base percentage, sixth with a .566 slugging percentage and sixth in OPS at .967.

And homer No. 17 was the biggest hit in another win for the 40-18 Yankees. 

“That’s what he does,” catcher Austin Romine said. “He’s our guy that we look to carry us right there. It was a big hit for us.

“We were grinding through that game. Our bullpen just kept putting up zeroes and allowed us to be in that position and when you’ve got Judge up at the plate, you know you’re going to get a good at-bat and he has a chance to hit the ball out. And he did.”

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