KANSAS CITY, Mo. — An injury robbed Aaron Judge of one of his superpowers in the second half of last season.
But his right arm is alive and well now, and teams are once again being reminded of the dangers of trying to test it.
Judge unleashed a laser from right field to throw a runner out at the plate in the third inning Wednesday night, keeping Gerrit Cole’s shutout intact on the way to a 7-0 win over the Royals that finished off a sweep at Kauffman Stadium.
“I thought the game really got going with Judge’s play,” said Cole, who tossed 6 ²/₃ scoreless innings. “He set the tone.”
It was still a scoreless game in the bottom of the third inning when the Royals had a runner on second and two outs for Maikel Garcia, who hit a sinking liner to right field. Judge knew he could either make a do-or-die diving attempt on it or pull up and try to throw out Michael Massey at the plate. He chose the latter, playing it on one hop and casually firing home to nail Massey for the third out.
“All I was thinking was, ‘Don’t let this guy score,’ ” Judge said. “Especially Gerrit coming back, second game, it’s a tight game. I know if we stop them from scoring there, they’re probably not going to score the rest of the game. Just trying to do my job.”
Judge, who dealt with a right flexor strain late last season that initially shut him down altogether before sapping some of his arm strength upon his return to the field, got healthier with rest this offseason and then came back looking like himself this spring.
But even knowing Judge’s arm, Cole thought the runner was going to score “for sure” before seeing it play out.
“He was dead to rights,” Cole said. “That just elevated our play a little bit, and we rolled from there.”
Aaron Boone said he thought it was the right send by the Royals because it was going to take a perfect throw to nab the runner. Judge delivered just that.
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“It was a sneaky great play,” Boone said. “What he does so well out there is slows it down. He moves quickly, but not in a hurry. To take a tricky hop and gather himself and slow down and execute a perfect throw, that’s a really good play right there.”
