Yankees: Aaron Judge Talks Facing Astros in 2020

Yankees star Aaron Judge spoke with Yanks Go Yard about the team readying themselves for the Astros in 2020.

Aaron Judge spoke with Yanks Go Yard on behalf of Pepsi, following the Yankees’ win over the Nationals on Opening Night. Make sure to check out the Judge Free Pass, which gives baseball fans everywhere a built-in excuse to drop everything and watch the game.

In the meantime, head on over and give Aaron’s tweet a RT. You won’t regret it.

The Yankees got their 60-game spring off to a very fine start on Thursday night, with an absolute downpour turning Gerrit Cole’s five one-hit innings into a splendid complete game.

Aaron Judge’s two near-identical liners to left helped power the Yankees’ attack, and though they’ve now proved their mettle against the Nationals, much of the focus still surrounds their ability to beat the team Washington defeated last October.

“[The Astros] have beaten us the last couple of years in the ALCS, and especially last year, beating us in the CS, you know, that’s the team we gotta go through to get to the World Series, you know? Especially in ’17, going all the way to Game 7 and then losing and then even last year, Game 6 with the Altuve walk-off.  That’s the team we gotta get through,” Judge told Mark Carman in an exclusive interview on Friday. Even in a shortened season, without Houston anywhere near the 60-game campaign, the Yanks slugger still knows where the focus lies.

But he’s not sure this story’s going to have the same ending.

“Adding the arms we did, and having everybody healthy, I think we have a really good chance to go out there and do that. It’s gonna be a crazy year, though, with these 60 games,” Judge continued.

https://twitter.com/Yankees/status/1285366592591798272?s=20

Despite the odd circumstances, Judge appears as locked in as ever entering 2020, shaking off his injury concerns to sock three home runs in exhibition play, as well as the aforementioned two lasers in Thursday night’s action.

The whole team has a new edge to them during this particular go ’round, but unfortunately, the emphasis is less on regular season play than ever before. Thanks to the league’s recently-enacted expanded postseason, Yankees stars like Judge know that, more than ever, the focus will be on getting past Houston in October, no matter how muddled the field becomes in the process.

And yes, Judge had some thoughts on the expansion.

“I liked how it was the old way, you know? You gotta win your division. Winning your division puts you in a good position to, you know, go down the stretch in the playoffs,” Judge told us. “I’m still mixed about it. I gotta see how this plays out. But getting more teams involved, getting more fans involved might be better for baseball.”

What’s best for baseball, after all of this? A New York-Houston clash, without the drunken escapades in the stands. Just the biggest and best stars this game has to offer, staring each other down once again, with the pop of the mitt and the crack of the bat amplified and doing the talking.

Here’s how the Judge Free Pass works:

Fans that opt to use their “Judge Free Pass” can download a toolkit featuring custom voicemails, automatic replies and away messages from Aaron Judge himself. Setting the custom messages as their backgrounds and replies, fans can tweet #JudgeFreePass to pledge to Pepsi and Judge himself that they’re playing hooky on Opening Day.  

Fans that retweet Aaron Judge’s post on his Twitter page this morning will automatically be entered to win autographed memorabilia, prizes and more. Plus, 20 lucky fans that use their “Judge Free Pass” and retweet the post will be entered to win a virtual meet-and-greet with Aaron Judge.