OK, look: when you’ve got a lineup that has Juan Soto — who is hitting everything right now — followed by Aaron Judge, you have to be very, very afraid.
So you can’t TOTALLY blame Chicago White Sox rookie manager Grady Sizemore on Wednesday, when he intentionally walked Soto to get to Judge, who was sitting on 299 career homers.
But maybe you can, because Judge took a 3-0 pitch and hit it out for home run No. 300. On top of that? Judge said he was motivated by the intentional walk to Soto, so in hindsight, not such a great call by Sizemore.
Here’s the moment, Judge’s talk about the walk and fans reacting:
It's one thing if you intentionally walk Juan Soto before Aaron Judge and it's a talking point for a night or so
But because it led to Aaron Judge's 300th home run, people will be talking about this Grady Sizemore decision forever. It's his sixth career game as a manager pic.twitter.com/OpzaZadI3Y
— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) August 15, 2024
"I was mad about the intentional walk. So that kind of fueled it. Usually 3-0 I'll take a pitch." -Aaron Judge on his 300th home run pic.twitter.com/6nAucR1RU8
— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) August 15, 2024
Hey, if they’re going to do that, you have to come up and drive those runs in.
– Aaron Judge on his mindset after the Juan Soto intentional walk pic.twitter.com/ifdwZTXzP8
— YES Network (@YESNetwork) August 15, 2024
Walk Soto to pitch to Judge????? pic.twitter.com/qrG2RSZbBS
— Jason Hartelius (@jasonhartelius) August 15, 2024
Grady Sizemore when deciding to intentionally walk Aaron Judge pic.twitter.com/hpN7EhmxY3
— Ciarra ✨ (@ciarranotmist) August 13, 2024
I understand the White Sox are trying to get the double play because convention tells you that, but you can’t intentionally walk someone to get to AARON JUDGE. Like what is wrong with you?? Hahaha
— Randy Wilkins (@pamsson) August 15, 2024