CHICAGO — There was disbelief in the New York Yankees’ dugout.
Chicago White Sox interim manager Grady Sizemore intentionally walked Juan Soto so relief pitcher Chad Kuhl, who entered Wednesday’s game with a 4.81 career ERA, could pitch to Aaron Judge with runners on first and second.
Since 1950, only four individual seasons have statistically surpassed Judge’s 2024 performance by wRC+: 2002 Barry Bonds, 2001 Barry Bonds, 2004 Barry Bonds and 1957 Ted Williams. And yet the White Sox, who trailed 6-2 in the eighth inning, believed they had a better chance of escaping the jam by pitching to Judge. Or so they thought.
Soto hit four home runs against the White Sox over the past two days, including one in the first inning of Wednesday’s game. Sizemore stated that Soto’s success against them in the three-game series influenced his decision to pitch to the best hitter in the sport instead.
“It’s just pick your poison,” Sizemore said. “I’m not trying to get to Judge. I got a base open. (Soto’s) got four homers. There’s no solution or easy way out of that jam. Soto’s definitely been the hotter of those two bats, even though Judge has been hot, too. We were just kind of playing the situation there. We were already in trouble. We had the base open. Just trying to get out of it any way we could.”
History for The Captain 🫡#AllRise pic.twitter.com/VIIOPh8ngt
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) August 15, 2024
Soto expected to be on second base moments later, as he thought the White Sox would intentionally walk Judge as well. He was wrong.
Kuhl fell behind 3-0 in the count to Judge before throwing a 94.2 mph sinker in on the slugger’s hands. It was out of the strike zone, but Judge chased it. Yankees manager Aaron Boone joked that he thought he expanded the zone too much on that pitch, but he did not doubt that he was going to do damage if he swung. It’s not often Judge swings at a pitch 3-0 out of the zone, but he took the White Sox’s decision to intentionally walk Soto personally.
He clobbered his 300th career home run at 110.1 mph on a ball that traveled 361 feet over the left-field fence. Judge became the quickest player to reach 300 career home runs, doing so in 955 games and 3,431 at-bats.
“I was mad about the intentional walk, so that kind of fueled it,” Judge said on the field. “But in that situation, if they want to pitch to you, you gotta come through.”
Inside the clubhouse, Judge said he understood the White Sox’s decision to face him because of Soto’s four home runs in the series. “You guys all saw how he was swinging the bat this week. It makes sense. Why wouldn’t you?” But Judge was the only one who wasn’t bewildered by the move.
Yankees catcher Austin Wells wasn’t expecting to be in the on-deck circle as quickly as he was, so he didn’t know what the reaction was in the dugout behind him when they saw Soto take his free pass to first. He imagined there would’ve been a state of shock if he looked back at his teammates.
“That was crazy,” Wells said. “Yeah, that was crazy. I didn’t believe it. It didn’t work out too well. That was a lot of fun. It was kind of like an explosion of offense right there.”
Wells then went back-to-back with Judge to give the Yankees a 10-2 lead. The Yankees catcher said Judge making the White Sox regret pitching to him fueled him in his at-bat; he took such an aggressive swing on a 1-0 count that his bat fell out of his right hand.
Oswaldo Cabrera watched from the dugout when Soto walked. He had the same reaction as everyone in the building: “They’re really doing this, huh?”
“We know our Cap,” Cabrera said, “We know in that moment he’s going to be like, ‘OK, I got this.’ It probably feels disrespectful for him. For that reason, it probably fired him up in that at-bat. You see what happened.”
Cabrera added that he could understand the decision to some extent, as he believes Judge is the best right-handed hitter in the sport and Soto is the best left-handed hitter. The two rank first and second in wRC+ and should finish in the top three of American League MVP voting.
When Judge reached a 3-0 count, Soto thought Kuhl was going to throw a ball in the dirt and unintentionally walk him. He was stunned that Kuhl’s sinker was anywhere close to the strike zone.
“I didn’t know they were going to try to pitch to him,” Soto said. “I don’t know. It’s their strategy. I don’t know what they were thinking.
“They just missed the spot and paid the price.”
The Man. The Myth. The Judge.#RepBX pic.twitter.com/wfBIHWdhQD
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) August 15, 2024
With Judge reaching 300 home runs, the question becomes how high he can climb on the all-time home run leaderboard. He’s under contract for seven more years and is averaging 51 home runs per 162 games in his career. However, it shouldn’t be expected this level will continue as he ages. Health will need to be on his side, which hasn’t always been the case throughout his career. The historic 500-home run club should be within reach, and becoming the fastest to 400 also seems attainable. Mark McGwire, the fastest to reach 400, did so in 1,412 games.
But Soto is thinking bigger. Why stop at 500? How about surpassing Barry Bonds’ 762 career home run mark?
“I hope he breaks the home run record,” Soto said. “Why not? I think he’s the guy who can literally break the record. He’s been showing up all the time. I hope he has the health to do it. I’m gonna enjoy this as much as I can, too.”
When relayed that Judge needs 463 more home runs to break Bonds’ record, Soto wasn’t impressed with the math.
“Well, what if he hits 60 home runs every year?”
(Photo of Aaron Judge: Justin Casterline / Getty Images)
