Alex Cora's Message About Aaron Judge Before Red Sox-Yankees

The playoffs are here.

The Boston Red Sox will begin their run to the World Series on Tuesday afternoon against the New York Yankees. First pitch between these two American League East rivals is scheduled for 6:08 p.m. ET from Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night.

Boston finished the regular season with an 89-73 record while the Yankees finished with a 94-68 record. The winner of the Wild Card round series between these two rivals will move on to face the Toronto Blue Jays in the American League Division Series.

It's going to be a nerve-wracking few days for the Red Sox and one of the biggest reasons why is Aaron Judge. The New York superstar had another phenomenal season and looks like he's going to finish first or second in the American League Most Valuable Player Award race. He finished the regular season slashing .331/.457/.688 with an eye-popping 1.144 OPS. On top of this, Judge had 53 homers, 114 RBIs, 124 walks, and 137 runs scored in 152 games played.

The Boston Red Sox manager spoke about Aaron Judge

Sep 28, 2025; Bronx, New York, USA; New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge (99) jogs to the dugout after the third inning against the Baltimore Orioles at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: John Jones-Imagn Images | John Jones-Imagn Images

Judge is a superstar and the Red Sox are going to have to worry about him this week. Ahead of the series, Red Sox manager Alex Cora spoke about Judge and unsurprisingly had nothing but praise for the slugger and talked about the challenge of stopping him.

"Not everybody thought that he was goign to be able to do it because he didn't have (Juan Soto) in the lineup and he was the best hitter in the league," Cora said. "I mean, think about batting average, I know people don't value it, quote-on-quote, but he hit like .330-whatever when guys are hitting .240. That's special. He hits the ball out of the ballpark and he's a good baserunner.

"Obviously, a little banged up defensively, but you know he's really good out there. Just, impressive. Early in the season, before we faced him, I was watching him like, 'Man, this is tremendous, eye-opening.' Just because of the fact that Juan went to the Mets and people said, 'Oh, they're going to pitch around him. He's not going to get pitches to hit.' No, he's that good."

The Red Sox actually have done a better job than most against Judge this season, but he's a big challenge for Boston this week.

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