Aaron Judge might have to write out a check for this one.
During the sixth inning of Team USA’s 9-1 blowout win over Great Britain on Saturday in pool play, Judge hit a laser directly into the left field wall, breaking the scoreboard at Daikin Park in Houston.
The ball, which ended up resulting in an RBI single for Judge, wound up destroying a panel on the left-field scoreboard at a scorching 109.5 mph off of the bat.
Judge’s hit also came during a three-run sixth inning for Team USA, which saw them break the game open against Great Britain.
Team USA was held scoreless for the first four innings, with Great Britain jumping out to an early lead after outfielder Nate Eaton homered off of Tarik Skubal on the first pitch of the game. Trayce Thompson also robbed Will Smith of a homer in the second inning, but the Americans rolled after that.
After their victory against Brazil on Friday, Team USA improved to 2-0 in pool play, with the team set to face Mexico next on Monday.
The U.S. went all out with its roster for this year’s tournament following a devastating loss to Japan in the finals back in 2023.
Manager Mark DeRosa assembled a star-studded U.S. squad this time around, and was dead set on landing Judge, previously detailing on “The Show with Joel Sherman & Jon Heyman” last month how he got the three-time American League MVP to come aboard.
DeRosa said he was able to recruit Judge through former Yankee great — and current Team USA pitching coach — Andy Pettitte, who said that the seven-time All-Star wanted to play for the U.S.
“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. 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”