In 2022, Aaron Judge homered once in his first 13 games before setting an American League record with 62 home runs. Last season, he hit .197 through his first 33 contests before ending with 58 homers and a .322 average.
So imagine what might be possible when the New York Yankees slugger gets off to a good start.
Judge owns four home runs through three games, and the two-time AL Most Valuable Player attempts to keep it going Tuesday when the Yankees host the Arizona Diamondbacks and former Cy Young winner Corbin Burnes in the opener of a three-game series.
The Yankees are off to a 3-0 start for the second season in a row, which marks the first time since 1994-95 that they opened with three straight wins in consecutive seasons. New York has not opened with four straight wins in consecutive seasons since 1927-28.
When the Yankees won their first five games last year, they compiled 26 runs and hit five home run. In its season-opening sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers, New York scored 36 runs and hit 15 homers.
The Yankees joined the 1954 Chicago Cubs and 1978 Brewers as the only MLB teams to score at least 36 runs in the first three games. New York tied the 2006 Detroit Tigers as the only teams to slug 15 homers in the opening three games of a season.
Judge hit three of New York’s team-record nine long balls in Saturday’s 20-9 win and then homered again in the first inning of Sunday’s 12-3 rout. The Yankees hit four homers Sunday, as Jazz Chisholm Jr. had two and Ben Rice also went deep.
“I wanted to have a better March and April than I did last season,” Judge said. “I did some stuff throughout spring training, but I think the biggest thing is this offense. Every time I walk up there, there’s guys on base, there’s traffic.”
Judge is 0-for-7 lifetime against Burnes, who makes his Arizona debut after signing a six-year, $210 million deal following one season with the Baltimore Orioles.
Burnes was 15-9 with a 2.92 ERA in 32 starts last season for the Orioles and finished fifth in the AL Cy Young voting.
He was 3-0 with a 5.06 ERA in six spring training starts, though he notched 22 strikeouts versus two walks in 16 innings. The Diamondbacks opted to save him for their fifth game to give him some extra time to prepare.
The Diamondbacks are coming off a season-opening four-game split against the visiting Chicago Cubs. On Sunday, they earned a 10-6 victory by rallying with an eight-run eighth inning when Lourdes Gurriel Jr. hit the tying two-run homer and Josh Naylor hit the go-ahead RBI double.
“Those guys are in there celebrating right now,” manager Torey Lovullo said. “These are the push type of games you’re looking for — a push moment, a push situation, where the next thing you know, you get on an airplane, head east and you have good thoughts.”
The Diamondbacks are hoping to gain more positive thoughts by watching Burnes continue his success against the Yankees. Although he is 0-2 in three starts against the Yankees, he owns a 1.42 ERA that includes eight no-hit innings on Sept. 10, 2023, in New York when he pitched for Milwaukee.
Will Warren opens the series for the Yankees after going 4-1 with a 5.09 ERA in seven spring appearances. Warren made the rotation due to injuries to Gerrit Cole (elbow surgery), Luis Gil (lat strain) and Clarke Schmidt (shoulder fatigue).
Warren was 0-3 with a 10.32 ERA in six appearances (five starts) last season. He last started for the Yankees on Aug. 31 when he allowed four runs on five hits in four innings against the St. Louis Cardinals.
