NEW YORK — Late Thursday night, with the New York Yankees‘ home opener the next morning, Aaron Judge shot a mass text to his teammates: Suits tomorrow.
It’s a directive the captain has occasionally communicated over the years. He sought to set a tone, and his teammates complied, reporting to work at Yankee Stadium for the first of 81 home games in their finest threads.
A few hours later, the three-time American League MVP set the tone from the batter’s box, crushing a two-run home run in his first plate appearance at home this season to give the Yankees a lead they didn’t relinquish in an 8-2 victory over the Miami Marlins in front of a sellout crowd of 48,788.
“That’s what he does best,” Yankees first baseman Ben Rice said. “Coming out, swinging out the gate like that for us is huge. It’s just so contagious and got everybody going.”
The blast off Marlins right-hander Eury Perez was Judge’s third home run in seven games this season. An inning later, he was hit by a pitch on his right forearm with the bases loaded, prompting gasps and brief panic throughout the ballpark. But Judge emerged unscathed and stayed in the game.
“I’ve broken my wrist like that, so that’s always the main concern,” said Judge, who missed six weeks in 2018 with a fractured right wrist after getting plunked. “But once you feel like everything’s intact, you get to first and you keep going and doing your job.”
Judge walked in the sixth inning and singled in the eighth before stealing his first base of the season and scoring on Rice’s two-run double. His steal was one of the Yankees’ five on the day as New York took an aggressive approach on the basepaths, taking extra bases whenever possible against a Marlins pitching staff that also issued 11 walks.
Yankees pitching, meanwhile, did not walk a batter. Will Warren surrendered two solo home runs over 5⅔ innings — the first home runs the Yankees allowed this season — before four Yankees relievers combined to hold the Marlins without a hit.
In all, the Yankees have given up eight runs this season, tied with the 2002 San Francisco Giants and 1993 Atlanta Braves for the fewest allowed by a team through seven games in major league history. The dominance has propelled the Yankees to a 6-1 start for the second time in three seasons.
“It’s early, but you love the fact that you get off to this kind of start because wins are precious,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said.
