Yankees Superstar Aaron Judge Makes Royals Righty Lament 'Mistake' In 4-3 Loss
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The Kansas City Royals were trying to avoid a sweep on Wednesday night, but Aaron Judge had other ideas.
In the seventh inning of a tied game, Judge came to the plate to lead off the inning and deposited a 1-0 sinker from reliever John Schreiber into the bullpen in right-center field. It was the seventh homer of the season for the reigning Most Valuable Player, and it provided the eventual final score of 4-3.
It was easy to question the pitch selection and location. Sure, no one wants to put the leadoff batter of the inning on base, but when that batter is Aaron Judge, you'd rather give up a walk than take a risk by leaving a 93-mile-per-hour pitch directly in the center of the strike zone.
There are some hitters in Major League Baseball one can afford to miss their location against every so often. Judge is certainly not one of them. He's now hit 164 homers in his last 439 games dating back to the start of the 2022 season, by far the most in the majors.
After the game, Schreiber told us what we all knew: you can't miss in the middle of the plate against the two-time MVP.
“It was just a missed location,” Schreiber said, per Bill Ladson of MLB.com. “It was a bad pitch. He is one of the best hitters in the game. I made a mistake, and you can’t do it.”
Schreiber has been a reliable seventh-inning guy for the Royals since arriving at the start of the 2024 season. But after allowing just one home run in 51 2/3 innings last season, he's now allowed three solo shots, the only three earned runs he's given up, in seven innings this year.
It's still early in the season, but the Royals know based on last year's experience that the Yankees could be waiting for them in October--if they're fortunate enough to get that far.
If that's the case, they'd best learn their lesson: stay away from Judge when the chips are on the table.
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Jackson Roberts is a former Division III All-Region DH who now writes and talks about sports for a living. A Bay Area native and a graduate of Swarthmore College and the Newhouse School at Syracuse University, Jackson makes his home in North Jersey. He grew up rooting for the Red Sox, Patriots, and Warriors, and he recently added the Devils to his sports fandom mosaic. For all business/marketing inquiries regarding "Kansas City Royals On SI," please reach out to Scott Neville: scott@wtfsports.org
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