First, the New York Yankees will honor their most recent championship team from 2009, then the real intrigue will occur when Aaron Judge takes his next set of at-bats.
Judge gets his first crack at hitting his major-league-best 50th homer and tying a career high by going deep for the fifth straight game when the Yankees host the Colorado Rockies on Saturday afternoon.
After Alex Rodriguez takes part in his first Old-Timers’ Day, joining Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera, Judge will attempt to continue his current hot streak. He homered off Kyle Freeland in the sixth inning of the Yankees’ 3-0 win on Friday, reaching 49 homers in New York’s 129th game.
Two years ago when he broke Roger Maris’ single-season American League record by hitting 62, Judge hit his 50th homer in the Yankees’ 129th contest.
Judge, who also hit 52 as a rookie in 2017, is attempting to join Babe Ruth, Alex Rodriguez, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa as the fifth player with at least three 50-homer seasons. Ruth, Sosa and McGwire each had four such campaigns.
Judge, who became New York’s first captain since Jeter after his historic season, has five homers in his past four games, seven in eight games and eight in 11 games. He also has 45 homers in his past 100 games and is hitting .378 (133-for-352) in that span and .439 (18-for-41) during a season-high 11-game hitting streak.
“It’s hard to wrap your head around,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “We talk about it a lot what he’s doing because I get asked about it all the time, not just in these pressers but people coming up to you. I’m kind of running out of words to say. You’re witnessing greatness, you really are. He’s just kind of better than anyone.”
The Yankees head into Saturday having won three in a row and 16 in their past 24 after a 10-23 slide from June 15-July 26.
Besides trying to keep Judge in the ballpark, the Rockies will attempt to avoid a fourth straight loss and their 50th road defeat. Colorado mustered four hits in the series opener to fall to 18-49 on the road and 1-8 in its past nine road games.
“He’s a really good player,” Colorado manager Bud Black said of Judge. “I heard the MVP chants. When you start hearing those things from fans around the league, you know guys are having special years.”
The Rockies were blanked for the 13th time and are coming off their 20th game with four hits or fewer. They had just extra-base hit and only three at-bats with runners in scoring position on Friday.
New York’s starting pitching has thrown 19 straight scoreless innings heading into Saturday, when Will Warren (0-1, 8.59 ERA) makes his fourth career start.
Warren was recalled from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre when Luis Gil (back) was placed on the injured list Wednesday.
Warren allowed 12 runs over 9 2/3 innings in his first two outings against the Philadelphia Phillies and Los Angeles Angels but yielded just two runs on seven hits in five innings during a no-decision against the host Chicago White Sox on Aug. 14.
Bradley Blalock (0-0, 2.92 ERA), whom the Rockies obtained from the Milwaukee Brewers for reliever Nick Mears at the trade deadline, will make his third career start and fourth appearance on Saturday. He has allowed four runs in 11 1/3 innings in a pair of no-decisions against the Arizona Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres.
–Field Level Media