Aaron Judge has officially made his mark on the world stage.
In his first career World Baseball Classic at-bat, Judge blasted a two-run homer into the left-center stands in the first inning of Team USA’s opening pool play game against Brazil on Friday.
Judge’s home run was met with a loud roar from the fans at Daikin Park in Houston.
The blast gave the U.S. a 2-0 lead early on, as Brazil’s starting pitcher Bo Takahashi struggled in the first inning.
Brazil did answer back with a leadoff home run by outfielder Lucas Ramirez off USA starter Logan Webb.
This year is Judge’s first appearance in the WBC, having skipped out on 2023’s tournament and being a rookie in MLB back in 2017.
Despite it being his first go-around, Judge was named captain of the U.S. team upon agreeing to participate in this year’s tournament in April 2025.
During an appearance on “The Show with Joel Sherman & Jon Heyman” in February, USA manager Mark DeRosa detailed how he failed to bring Judge on in 2013, and what the process was like bringing the three-time American League MVP on for this time around.
DeRosa said he got wind that Judge wanted to play for Team USA from legendary Yankees southpaw Andy Pettitte, and decided to go from there.
“I just said, ‘Hey Aaron, I’m not going to bug you throughout the year. … I talked to Andy Pettitte, I’d love for you to be obviously the captain of Team USA and kind of start with you and filter everything around you as the pillar of this thing,’” DeRosa said was his pitch to Judge.
“He called me back within 48 hours and was like, ‘I’m in, I want to do it.’ … I started it in April, I just started slow-playing and trying to make pitches,” he added. “I was building a Dream Team at night in my apartment on paper. Trying to make lineups out and pitching staffs.
“I was just slowly cold-calling people and seeing where their heads were at.”