Aaron Judge, the star outfielder for the New York Yankees, made headlines recently when he hit a massive 462-foot home run in a game against the Toronto Blue Jays. However, it wasn’t just the impressive distance of the home run that got people talking – it was what happened before the pitch.
According to Judge, he was trying to identify which of his teammates was yelling at plate umpire Clint Vondrak when he peeked into his own dugout before hitting the homer. “There was kind of a lot of chirping from our dugout, which I really didn’t like in the situation,” Judge explained.
The Yankees were leading 6-0 at the time, and just three pitches earlier, Vondrak had ejected Yankees manager Aaron Boone for arguing a low strike call to Judge. Boone came out of the dugout to vent at Vondrak and crew chief James Hoye.
Toronto’s broadcasters noticed Judge peeking into his own dugout before his homer and speculated he was looking for some kind of signal. “It’s kind of odd that a hitter would be looking in that direction,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said.
Judge clarified that he wasn’t looking for a signal, but rather trying to quiet down his teammates who were still voicing their displeasure with the umpire’s call. “I feel like after the manager does his thing, it’s like, ‘Fellas, our pitcher has still got to go out there and make some pitches. We’ve got the lead, let’s just go to work here,'” Judge said. “I said a couple of things to some guys in the dugout and especially after the game. Hopefully, it won’t happen again.”
Boone understood Judge’s frustration with the dugout distraction, saying “Judge was kind of looking over like, ‘I’m hitting here.'”
Despite the distraction, Judge managed to hit not one, but two solo home runs in the game, bringing his total for the season up to 10. It was also his third multihomer game this year and the 30th of his career. Judge has had particular success against the Blue Jays, hitting 30 home runs against them – his second-highest total against any opponent, behind 35 against the Baltimore Orioles.
