I Don't Get It, But I'll Take It

He might not get it, either.

At this moment, Aaron Judge has a .423 batting average, a .510 on-base percentage, a .777 slugging percentage, a 263 OPS+, 11 home runs and 33 RBIs.

He has played in 34 games. At his current rate, he would end the season with 52 home runs and 157 RBIs.

That's insane. That's Babe Ruth numbers, or Barry Bonds on steroids numbers, plus a batting average that even Ted Williams would bug out at.

Judge is 6-foot-7 and 280 pounds of muscle, playing with short fences that the Babe, Mickey Mantle and Reggie Jackson would have given a tooth to hit toward, and not just at his home park -- on any given day, the Yankees can turn any ballpark into "a little league field" -- against pitchers who, when they find the plate at all, are throwing 100 miles per hour but they're mostly meatballs, and not as good as the best pitchers of previous generations.

Yes, he's special. But don't act so surprised at the results. Eventually, a player like Aaron Judge was going to happen. It's not like with Shohei Ohtani, who's big, but not that big: 6-foot-3 and 210, and shouldn't be putting up shocking numbers. (That doesn't make Ohtani better, but, even without the pitching, it might make him harder to believe.)

Anyway, do the Yankees miss Juan Soto? No. He's batting .256, with 5 homers and 14 RBIs. All by himself, Judge is making up his production.

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But it's not just Judge: The rest of the team has to produce, too.

On Friday night, they started a home series against the Tampa Bay Rays, and produced just enough. Max Fried hit a batter in the 1st inning, walked one in the 2nd, walked another in the 3rd, allowed a single in the 5th, and had a batter reach base due to an error in the 7th. Paul Goldschmidt hit a 3-run home run in the 5th, and that was all the scoring in the game: Yankees 3, Rays 0.

The rest of the series was rainy and depressing. On Saturday, one of those hole-in-the-rotation days, Judge and Austin Wells each hit a home run. Ryan Yarbrough threw 64 pitches over 4 innings, allowing 1 run on 1 hit and 3 walks. He should have been left in for the 5th.

Instead, Aaron Boone brought Ian Hamilton in. He pitched a scoreless 5th. He should have been left in for the 6th.

Instead, Boone brought Fernando Cruz in. He pitched a scoreless 6th and 7th. He should have been left in for the 7th.

Instead, Boone brought Mark Leiter Jr. in. He blew it, allowing single and a walk, getting a strikeout, then allowing a single and a fielder's choice, and turning a 2-1 Yankee lead into a 3-2 Yankee loss.

Injuries to the starting rotation. Cashman instructing Boone not to trust the starters who take their place. Boone's total inability to handle a bullpen. Giancarlo Stanton, DJ LeMahieu, Jazz Chisholm and now, in this game, Anthony Volpe being injured. Put it all together, and it was Rays 3, Yankees 2.

Yesterday was another hole-in-the-rotation day. Will Warren didn't get out of the 5th inning, and it was 5-0 Rays. It was miserable.

How miserable was it? You know how Yankee broadcasters, going back at least as far as Phil Rizzuto, will sometimes talk about anything but the game they're actually getting paid to describe? Well, when it was 5-0 Rays, Michael Kay and former reliever Jeff Nelson were doing the game on YES, and they were talking about not a game at Yankee Stadium, but another New York Sunday institution: The New York Times Sunday Crossword Puzzle.

I occasionally do crossword puzzles. My mother loves them. So did hers. But the real crossword whiz in the family was Mom's Aunt Catherine, who died late last year at the age of 96. Until her eyesight started going at 93, she did the puzzle every day. All 4 of us (me, Mom, Grandma and Aunt Catherine) were in agreement that the Times puzzle starts easy on Monday, then gets progressively harder during the week, until Sunday when it's the hardest. The Times plans it that way, so it's not an opinion, and not an accident. Kay was trying, without success, to convince Nellie that the puzzle is actually at its hardest on Saturdays.

Good thing The Sopranos isn't still on the air, or Kay might have been talking about that.

Cody Bellinger hit a home run in the bottom of the 6th, getting the Yankees to within 5-2. That was given right back in the top of the 7th, by Carlos Carrasco: Single, single, walk, strikeout, 2-run single. 7-2.

As comedian and Yankee Fan Vic Dibitetto would say, "You know what ticks me off?" One thing that ticks me off is when a comeback falls short. In the bottom of the 8th, the Yankees got to within 7-5, and brought the go-ahead run to the plate. But they could get no closer, and the side was struck out in the 9th, ending the game at 7-5.

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So, 34 games into the season, a little over 1/5th of the way into the season, the Yankees are 19-15, a percentage of .559, or a pace of 90-72. But they lead the American League Eastern Division, by 2 games over the Boston Red Sox, 3 each over the Tampa Bay Rays and the Toronto Blue Jays, and 5 1/2 over the Baltimore Orioles. In the all-important loss column, they lead the O's by 5, and each of the others by 3.

I don't get it. But I'll take it.

Tonight, the San Diego Padres come in for a 3-game Interleague series. Then, the Yankees make their 1st-ever trip to Sacramento, to face the temporarily exiled Athletics.