Aaron Judge home run only adds more scrutiny to Gleyber Torres, Anthony Volpe gaffe

In a matter of seconds, Yankees fans experienced both unfamiliar elation and familiar malaise on Wednesday evening in the bottom of the second.

With the bases loaded and two outs for Juan Soto, Astros rookie righty Spencer Arrighetti (with visions of Soto's 440-foot oppo bomb dancing in his head) faced a 3-1 count. He proceeded to dot a changeup at the bottom of the zone for the second time in the AB, then induced a slow grounder to presumably escape trouble.

Or so Arrighetti thought. Because Juan Soto isn't just a hulking 25-year-old mega-slugger. He's also got enough wheels to beat the pitcher to the bag, which he did by a hair, extending the Bombers' lead to 3-1. That's when, for just a few seconds, the circus arrived in town.

While Anthony Rizzo scored with ease, Gleyber Torres was content to hang out at third despite having a head start on scoring (with first baseman Jonathan Singleton's back turned). Anthony Volpe, who should've been more aware of the conservative behavior at third, motored to the bag, swiping two in the same amount of time it took Torres to snag one.

That left Torres hung out to dry and unloaded the bases, capping the inning at a single run.

Yankees Captain Aaron Judge cashes in with home run after Torres, Volpe gaffe on bases

Look. You can say all the right things. You can toe the company line. But the last thing you want to see, if you're Torres or Volpe, and you've just taken a bases loaded opportunity away from Aaron Judge, is an all-time effortless Aaron Judge home run on the very next pitch he sees.

Nobody wants to fall victim to the fallacy of the predetermined outcome. If the bases were juiced for Judge, Arrighetti probably would've tossed him a dirty change rather than a get-me-over fastball.

Still, you can't deny it's fairly ironic that Judge responded to being robbed of a RBI opportunity by depositing a torpedo into the bleachers.

That's eight home runs and 22 RBI for Judge all of a sudden, who's looking a bit more like his old self these days.

He's lifting and separating fastballs to the opposite field. He's turning his back to umpires and hoping that won't result in any more ejections. And, yes, he's showing his teammates what they missed out on by getting into some funky baserunning. That's what a captain does.

Just don't let it happen again.