Aaron Judge reaches base six times for first time in illustrious Yankees career

BOSTON — Perhaps Juan Soto was trying to do too much.

In the eighth inning of a game the Yankees were suddenly trailing by just one, he either ignored or did not see his third-base coach and sprinted right through Luis Rojas’ stop sign.

On an Aaron Judge double that scored one run, Soto was thrown out trying to score from first in a likely example of a superstar trying to will his team to a victory that it needed, and that will backfiring.

Among the many astounding attributes of Judge, meanwhile, is his ability to never seem to try to do too much.

When the pitcher offers him little, he typically walks.

When the pitcher offers him something, he usually does something with it.

He rarely presses in a sport in which trying too hard can be self-defeating.

Yet again Judge did some of everything at the plate and took what the pitcher gave him, going 4-for-4 with three RBIs in leading the Yankees to a much-needed, 11-8, 10-inning win over the Red Sox at Fenway Park on Saturday.

In the first inning, Boston’s Kutter Crawford opted to pitch to Judge after serving up a home run to Soto. Judge crushed the second pitch he saw to left-center for his second homer in as many days.

In the third, with no one on base and one out, Judge smacked a single to left.

For some reason Crawford pitched to Judge again in the fifth, with Alex Verdugo on third and one out, and Judge blistered another single to left.

Leading off the seventh, Judge got behind 0-2 against Josh Winckowski and fought his way to a walk, eventually coming around to score.

Judge crushed the RBI double that ended with Soto getting thrown out in the eighth, before he walked on five pitches in the 10th.

Count it up: Six times up, six times on base for the first time in 939 career games. In season nine, it is rare that Judge does anything for a first time.

“He’s just so consistent in who he is,” Aaron Boone said of Judge, who had reached base five times in a game eight times previously. “Forget how great a player he is between the lines and how great a hitter he is — but no matter what we’re going through, flying high or we’re struggling our butts off, he’s the same focused, energetic team guy all the time.

“It’s all I’ve ever seen from him.”

Judge’s average is up to .314 and on-base percentage an MLB-best .445. Oh, and his majors-best 37th home run came in his 104th game; he had blasted 43 through 104 games in his record-setting 2022 campaign.

“Judge was special,” said Marcus Stroman, “as he’s been all year.”

And as he has done for much of his career, Judge mostly turned any question about his own feats into statements about the team.

“We came out today ready to do our thing,” Judge said of an offense that has woken up. “So that’s what this team is about. You’re going to have some tough moments and go through some tough losses, but we came up with a win today.”