New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge mashed his league-leading 41st home run on Saturday against the Toronto Blue Jays. It came during his first at-bat and set the tone for the club's 8-3 victory.
Baseball fans have become accustomed to seeing Judge launch mammoth home runs all year. The power he possesses at the plate is out of this world, and not many can compare.
The slugger's swing was recently analyzed by Tommy Maestra, who often scientifically analyzes players on his X account. He compared Judge's swing to an axeman cutting down a tree.
"Aaron Judge destroyed another belt high inner 1/3 fastball for his 41st HR. It seems like Judge never misses a pitch over the heart of the zone. Just like he never misses those pitches, he never hits pitches at the top of the zone. That is because it's physically impossible for him to do so," - said Maestas.
"Aaron uses the same body technology an axeman would use if he was chopping down a tree and attacking it from underneath. What's more remarkable than Judge's ability to crush mistakes is the fact that pitchers don't attack him in the zone that his swing path CANNOT handle" - said Maestas.
Judge is able to attack the bottom half of the baseball, putting immense backspin on it, and letting it fly. Maestas also notes that pitchers often do not attack him up in the zone where he cannot consistently get his barrel to the ball.
Aaron Judge sees rare intentional walk after first-inning blast
Aaron Judge has been hot after starting the season with a bit of a slump. His 41 home runs this season are eight more than Shohei Ohtani, who sits in second with 33.
After crushing a two-run home run in the first inning on Saturday, Toronto was a bit hesitant to pitch to him. Judge came back up to the plate in the second inning with no one on base and was intentionally walked.
According to MLB insider Bryan Hoch, this is the first time this season that anyone has been intentionally walked with the bases loaded. That goes to show the first Judge strikes in opposing teams when he has the bat in his hand.
Judge is now just two home runs away from reaching 300 career home runs. He now has 141 games to get these two homers and be the youngest player in history to reach that mark.