For the rest of my life, whenever the Yankees play the Mets - like it or not - we will also behold a mini-duel between Judge and Juan Soto, the titans of NYC.
Won’t matter who's hitting .409 or leading MLB in bombs. Their personal battle will transcend everything, even the current standings. All that will matter is who delivers in the Subway Series.
Yesterday - hawk, spit - Judge came up empty.
Okay, let's reign this in. I'm not demeaning the Captain. No way. He’s the Dude, the Man, the Pope - the Humungous - and I wouldn’t trade him for two Sotos and a Polar Bear (the man, not the ice cream bar.)
But there will always be two comparisons...
1. Their stats on the Jumbotron.
2. Their production, head-to-head.
Thus far, this weekend...
Judge is 2-for-10 with a walk and four Ks.
Soto is 2-10 with 4 walks and one strikeout.
With his extroverted flourish and grin, and scoring a huge run in a tight game, Soto won yesterday. But tonight...
Listen: By this time next month, (barring an injury or historical event), what happens in this opening series will be ancient history. The teams will have moved on. But the battle between Soto and Judge is here to stay. There can only be one king of New York. And tonight, we shall see...
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If we win tonight, it will likely be because of Max Fried
Judge simply is not the heroic type. Once in a long while, yes, but it's usually pretty long. 9th inning power? Nope. Playoffs and WS? No siree.
For such a great player, it must be maddening. It is for me, it must be a thousand times worse for him.
Looking at the matchups for tonight’s game, a slight advantage goes to Davey Johnson’s Mets.
You gotta believe that if they can get the ball to Tug McGraw with a lead then boys from flushing will take the series.
Hey, did ya'll notice yesterday that was a "whooppee" game? Judge, hitting in the #2 slot, came up with two outs in the 9th as the last potential Yankee out, which at-bat he might not have had if he'd batted #3. WHOOOOOOOOOPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So score one for the stat freaks. Except, of course, that he struck out. Which makes that one more at-bat by batting in the #2 slot kind of useless, right? What do you think he'll be in such situations at the end of the year? Maybe 0 for 16, with 10 strikeouts?
Listen, I don't blame Judge for not producing there. I never expect anything positive in those situations. Against the other team's closer, what are the chances of getting on base? Like maybe 1 in 8? And the chances of a game tying homer? Like maybe 1 in 100? Long odds. Whether it's Judge or just about anyone else. Maybe that steroid freak David Ortiz who never got prosecuted would have a better chance than anyone else, because the umpires used to give him 5 or 6 strikes per at bat.
Or maybe fucking Dustin Pedroia might have a chance, another Red Sox a-hole who used to torture the rest of baseball to the delight of Red Sox fans. On a high strike, that guy would let his knees buckle and almost touch the ground, and the stupid umpire would call it a ball. On a low strike, he would jump up in the air, to make the pitch pass under his ankles. And the stupid umpire would call it a ball.
One time, maybe near the end of his polluted tenure, Pedroia did both things in an at-bat, but the ump called "steeeeeee-riiiiiiiiiiike three, you're out". I distinctly recall that Pedroia jumped so high, he could've won the fucking Olympic high jump, then he screamed and slammed the bat on the ground so hard at home plate that it bounced a yard or two in the air. Of course, the ump did not throw that son of a bitch out of the game. That a-hole and that steroid a-hole Ortiz both lived absolutely CHARMED lives. Maybe they suffered greatly and needlessly in their previous incarnations, who the hell knows, but all my life I never saw two more fortunate a-holes in major league baseball.
Tim Wakefield
Ted Williams
That's my list of red sux players that are worthy of respecting.
After that, no, nothing.
Very quiet again tonight
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