Oftentimes, Aaron Judge's defense takes a backseat to his elite offense, but on Friday night against the Cubs, it was a different story.
In what would eventually become an 11-0 laugher in the Yankees' favor, it could have been a very different story if Judge hadn't put on the defensive performance that he did.
With the Yankees up 3-0 in the fourth inning, the Cubs' young superstar Pete Crow-Armstrong, took Carlos Rodon deep into right field. Judge drifted back, got to the wall and timed his jump perfectly to bring the would-be home run back.
Judge then robbed Dansby Swanson of a single with a headfirst slide coming at him, but probably the best play of the night came in the eighth. With two outs and runners at the corners, Kyle Tucker lofted a Rodon pitch into shallow right field that was going away from Judge. The reigning AL MVP caught up to it and made another headfirst slide to end the inning and preserve the shutout.
ANOTHER SPECTACULAR CATCH BY AARON JUDGE! pic.twitter.com/e3lrhOHhhV
— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) July 12, 2025
If PCA got that ball over the wall in the fourth, the score is 3-1 and who knows how the rest of the game would have played out. And if Judge doesn't make that catch in the eighth, Rodon's night isn't as sharp as it would become.
The Yankees southpaw, who was named to the All-Star game earlier in the day, credited Judge's three catches and Cody Bellinger's three home runs for helping him get through eight innings, the most he's had as a member of the Yankees.
"That was a heck of a play. That was probably my favorite, obviously, saving some runs from me," Rodon said of Judge's eighth-inning catch. "He was shading the gap on Tucker, kind of more right-center than right. He had to cover a lot of ground for a big guy like that and lays out for me and makes that play. It was big. It was big."
"An elite right fielder," manager Aaron Boone said after the game. "He's just an outstanding athlete. Fundamentally, so sound out there. The throwing arm, the accuracy with that. And just, obviously, some really great plays tonight, and in an exclamation point on Carlos' night with a dive down the line there with two outs and two runners on. Just a big time defensive night for Judgey."
In that eighth inning, Judge said he lost a liner from Nico Hoerner in the lights, the batter before Tucker. That allowed the Cubs to get runners at the corners and forced Boone to talk to Rodon. Judge thought Rodon was going to get pulled before finishing the inning, but once the Yankees skipper let his starter stay in, Judge wanted to do everything to get that final out.
"[I wanted to make that play] big time, especially losing in the lights the one earlier by Nico and I was pretty upset about that.," Judge expI thought they were gonna pull him, but when that last one came out, I gotta run through this wall, I gotta make this play for [Rodon]. Pitched a hell of a game. Really set the tone for us going into this, especially a big series against the Cubs. Heck of a performance by him."
"He's just a great player. He takes a ton of pride in his defense," Boone said. "I think understanding the situation there, too. Like, understanding what kind of night Carlos is having there to finish it off was pretty sweet."
The Yankees put up 11 runs on 15 hits on Friday. Judge went 0-for-2 with two walks and a sac fly, being the only starter to not pick up a hit against the Cubs.
That's alright. Although Judge didn't impact the game too much at the plate, his defense more than made up for it and that's why his teammates see him as the complete player that he is.
"Knew he was a good outfielder," Bellinger said of Judge. "Just the complete baseball player he is, runs the bases hard, has a cannon of an arm, and ultimately has really good reads. I mean, four or five really tremendous catches today. It's just fun to play with because he's pretty unbelievable."
Read the full article here