Aaron Judge is so good at baseball that sometimes outfielders don’t even have to move after he makes contact.
That’s what happened in the top of the eighth inning of the New York Yankees’ game against the Seattle Mariners on Wednesday night, when Judge stepped up to the plate as the leadoff hitter in a tie game.
Mariners pitcher Carlos Vargas left a hanging slider in the zone and Judge demolished the ball to left center field for a towering, 444-foot home run. The 117.7 MPH blast was the hardest hit ball at T-Mobile Park in the Statcast era.
There was so little doubt that the ball was a home run that Mariners left fielder Randy Arozarena didn’t even move a muscle in the outfield.
Arozarena simply watched the ball fly.
Judge’s dinger not only gave the Yankees a 3-2 lead, but it also broke a tie with the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Corbin Carroll and the Philadelphia Phillies’ Kyle Schwarber for the MLB lead in home runs (15).
