Big Swings From the Big Man

Aaron Judge once again showed why in just two years he's become the Yankees' franchise player. Wednesday night, he followed Andrew McCutchen's leadoff walk in the bottom of the 1st with a booming home run for an instant 2-0 lead in the AL Wild Card game. A lead they never relinquished.
Judge wasn't done. Leading off the 6th, with the game still 2-0, he bounced a double down the right field line to set up a four-run inning. Aaron Hicks doubled Judge home and before long, Luke Voit tripled in two more runs and Didi Gregorius added a sacrifice fly. The Yankees were up by six and, even with Khris Davis homering in the 8th, the boys from the Bronx were never really challenged.
Victories often have multiple heroes: along with Judge and Voit, Luis Severino put his 2017 Wild Card washout in his rear view mirror. Instead, he looked a lot more like the ace he was during the first half of the season, contributing four no-hit innings before tiring in the 5th. And Giancarlo Stanton, in the first playoff game of his career, crushed a 440-plus-foot home run that soared over the left field foul pole. The final score: Yankees 7, Athletics 2.
But it all began with Judge, and the big hits that began writing his team's ticket to Boston for the Division Series.
(My image of Aaron Judge is from the April 5th Yankees/Orioles game.)

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