Carlos Rodon has a unique perspective on what his teammate Aaron Judge is doing. He doesn’t see it as closely since he only pitches every five games or so, but he gets to watch from the dugout as the slugger puts on a show every single day.
During Rodon’s last start against the Cleveland Guardians, Judge went 2-for-4 with a triple and a walk during a 5-1 win. His first out of the day broke a streak of six consecutive plate appearances with a hit. His average is an incomprehensible .415.
Rodon praised Judge even after dominating the Guardians on Wednesday. The ace compared Judge to a Hall of Fame hitter via The Athletic:
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“Right now, he’s like Tony Gwynn. Next week, he’ll probably be like Hank Aaron.”
This is unfamiliar territory even for Judge. The New York Yankees captain hit a career-best .322 last year, along with 58 home runs. This year, he’s lagging behind the league with only seven home runs, but his contact rate and average have skyrocketed.
Rodon added:
“I’m just surprised when he gets out. How about that?”
Judge doesn’t get out often. He leads baseball’s average leaderboard by an impressive 32 points higher than the next-best player: teammate Paul Goldschmidt (.383). Judge is 59 points higher than the closest non-Yankees hitter, St. Louis Cardinals star Brendan Donovan (.356).
Aaron Judge opens up on unprecedented stretch
Aaron Judge is enjoying a 21-game on-base streak, the fifth-longest of his illustrious career. He’s only been kept off-base entirely in one game this year.
He opened up on the hot stretch he’s enjoying via The Athletic:
“Hitting them where they’re not. Making contact. It’s baseball. You’re going to have that. You guys are going to be talking to me in June, where we have a tough month, and I’m going to tell you the same thing. It’s just about trying to keep everything simple, not trying to do too much.”
He added that he wanted to do better this April than he did last April, where he famously struggled before going on a rampage the rest of the way.
“I really don’t have an answer for you right now. I just wanted to come in this year and have a better April than I did last year. So, just trying to keep that going,” Judge added.
Judge is off on Thursday, perhaps making the schedule the only thing that can slow him down.
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Edited by Krutik Jain
