Even Aaron Judge's personal hitting guru isn't happy with Yankees
Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees in the first inning against the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium on Friday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
When you’ve lost 13 of your last 17 games, everyone feels the need to weigh in.
For the Yankees, that includes Aaron Judge’s personal hitting guru.
In an Independence Day message on X, Judge hitting guru Richard Schenck posted: “They’ve lost 13 out of 18 while he’s hitting like an MVP. The Yankees offensive player development is terrible.”
Schenck’s math may have been a little off, but his statement came in response to a YES Network post about how well Judge has hit in Yankees victories (.380, 23 homers, 63 RBIs, .854 slugging percentage as of the time of the post) vs. their defeats (.216, nine homers, 20 RBIs, .474 slugging percentage).
Judge confirmed that Schenck is his hitting guru in a 2018 post on what then was called Twitter. Judge called Schenck a “career-changer” for the work they did together in the 2016-17 offseason.
On Friday, Judge told reporters he was not aware of Schenck’s X comment.
“It doesn’t involve me, to be honest,” Judge said, according to MLB.com. “It’s somebody else making a comment. I’m not going to comment for somebody else. I’ve got no control over what another person does. It’s out of my control. I’ve got nothing for you.”
Manager Aaron Boone, asked about Schenck’s comment before the Yankees hosted the Red Sox on Friday, said: “People are going to say things, and certainly everyone is entitled to their opinion. Especially when you go through a tough stretch and you wear this uniform, I know people are going to take shots and things like that.
“You can’t get all consumed with all that stuff. We’ve got enough to worry about, making sure we’re buttoned up and putting our best foot forward every day. So that’s the focus.”
Boone also said he didn’t think the offense was the main reason for the Yankees’ recent slide. Most of the blame should go to the starting pitching, which in the last 17 games entering Friday had an MLB-worst 7.76 ERA.
"Our starting pitching kind of really has been the tone-setter for us this entire season to varying degrees,” Boone said. “Every guy’s a little bit different. We've had our struggles a few times now through the rotation. Some of that is pitch decision, execution. Some of it’s a little unfortunate — balls that were mistakes that turned into homers. That's kind of hurt us, and even in some outings where I feel like we've thrown the ball really well, like the long balls kind of wrecked an outing a little bit.
“Sometimes that's tip your cap to the other side, they hit a pitch. Sometimes it's did we throw the right pitch? Did we get it to the right spot? Are we making good decisions? All those things you kind of evaluate, and then on the flip side of it, just trying to get some certain guys going that have hit a little slow patch for a few weeks, which is not uncommon. We have everything in there to turn this around and get rolling in the right direction.”
Nestor Cortes started against the Red Sox on Friday and was stellar in the first four innings, allowing only a two-out double by Romy Gonzalez in the second and a walk in the fourth. He struck out five in that span, including Rafael Devers twice
Cortes struck out the first two batters he faced, fanned two more in the second and retired the Red Sox in order in the third.
Cortes came in with a home record of 4-3 with a 1.84 ERA and a road mark of 0-4, 5.63.
The Yankees, who had lost three in a row, did not have a baserunner in the first two innings against Boston righthander Tanner Houck.
The game was delayed 38 minutes before the bottom of the third by rain. After the delay, Anthony Volpe lined a single to right for the Yankees’ first hit, Trent Grisham walked and DJ LeMahieu's forceout put runners on first and third with one out. Inexplicably, however, when first baseman Gonzalez fielded Ben Rice's grounder, stepped on first and fired to shortstop Ceddanne Rafaella, Volpe did not hustle all the way home, turned to watch the play develop at second and had not touched the plate when Rafaella tagged out LeMahieu, preventing the run from scoring.
The Yankees didn't hit the ball out of the infield in the fourth and managed only one hit but scored three runs.
Gleyber Torres had to leave the game in the fourth after running hard to first to beat out an infield single that loaded the bases with one out. A throwing error on a potential inning-ending double-play ball handed the Yankees their first run, and Volpe walked to make it 2-0 and knock out Houck. Grisham's groundout gave the Yankees a 3-0 lead.
Gonzalez homered in the top of the fifth to make it 3-1.
Rice, batting leadoff for the second straight game, opened the home first by fouling out to Red Sox third baseman Devers, who did his best 2004 Derek Jeter impression by jumping over the tarp to make the catch.
Jeter made his full-sprint catch of a fair ball down the leftfield line and ended up getting bloodied when he crash-landed in the stands. Fortunately for Devers, there is netting now that stopped his momentum after he made the grab.
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
