Yankees Mag: 7 O’Clock Lightning

Throughout the decades, there have been plenty of times when spending July Fourth at Yankee Stadium was well worth the price of admission. From Lou Gehrig’s famous speech in 1939 to Dave Righetti’s no-hitter in 1983, countless incredible memories have been made in the Bronx on America’s birthday.

July 4, 2024, was not among those primo days. The Yankees were fighting through one of those rough patches that all teams go through, searching for a way to get back on the winning track they had enjoyed for much of the season’s first three months. An 8-4 Cincinnati Reds win capped off a three-game sweep -- the first by a visiting National League team in the Bronx since Interleague Play began in 1997 -- and although a robust holiday crowd of 43,154 cheered Ben Rice’s first big league homer, there wasn’t a whole lot else to get excited about as the Yanks remained two games behind Baltimore in the American League East standings.

In the postgame clubhouse, Aaron Judge stood before reporters and offered no excuses, stating that the team just wasn’t clicking the way it had been to start the season but that he was confident the guys would figure it out.

When pressed on how that might happen, the captain was forthright.

“Offensively, it’s just trying to score first,” Judge said. “It’s been a lot of weight on our pitchers’ shoulders to be perfect, and offensively, we’ve got to try to put some pressure on [the opposition], get some guys on base, maybe run a little bit, drive some guys in when they’re on base and try to get the score in our favor early on. And then that way we can kind of have leverage throughout the game.”

That very plan of attack served the Yanks well in the first half of the season. As the team raced out to a 52-29 record in its first 81 games, it made a habit of blitzing opposing starters, scoring in the first inning on 32 occasions -- about 40% of the time -- and outscoring opponents, 63-29, in the first frame. More often than not, those early fireworks led to favorable outcomes, with the Yankees going 27-5 (an .844 winning percentage) in games in which they plated at least one first-inning run.

Manager Aaron Boone said that scoring in the first wasn’t a point of emphasis, rather a result of having Juan Soto and Judge hitting second and third every day. “I don’t know if it’s anything we’ve focused on, other than having good players go up there and having a game plan and, by nature, with those guys being healthy and having some continuity there, they’ve obviously done a really good job in that first inning of setting the tone,” he said.

There was no arguing that having two of the game’s biggest offensive threats hitting in the first frame every night was a recipe for success. But a look beyond the lineup card reveals some interesting insight into how that success came about -- and why the Yankees may be primed to recapture their first-half magic as they push toward a postseason berth.

***

A few hours before the Yankees and Braves were set to face off on a nationally televised Saturday night game in the Bronx this past June, Judge dutifully held court near his locker in the Yankees' clubhouse, chatting amiably with the steady stream of reporters looking to gather the captain’s thoughts. When it was mentioned that, with the Yankees’ tendency to strike quickly, there was a risk in tuning in to a game late -- “You turn on the TV a few minutes after first pitch, and …” -- Judge finished the thought:

“It’s already 2-0.”

Like Boone, he said it wasn’t a conscious effort by the team to score early, but he was quick to credit hitting coach James Rowson for what he termed “a full team approach.”

“When this team is at its best, it’s when one through nine is just wearing down the pitcher,” Judge said. “I think in years past, when we’re not going right, it’s almost like a lot of guys have individual game plans, individual at-bats, and the pitcher can kind of pick you apart. But when we go in as a team, like, ‘He loves his changeup in this count; we’re going to take it away from him, put him on the defensive,’ I think that’s really when all of us shine.”

Soto recalls being on one other team that took this sort of group approach to hitting: the 2019 world champion Washington Nationals. For the Majors’ on-base percentage king, it is a strategy that works well, provided you have the right personnel -- guys willing to “keep the line moving” any way possible, whether it’s jumping on a first-pitch fastball in the zone or working a nine-pitch walk.

“This is a team game, a team sport, so we’re just trying to get it done as a team,” Soto said. “It’s a group thing. We try to pass the baton. We don’t try to be the hero every time we’re at the plate. We try to have good at-bats and knock that guy out of the game early.

“For me, I think I’ve been in one other lineup where it was like that. It was in 2019, [with the] World Series champs, so I think it’s very close to that. It was just everybody trying their best, trying to grind through it, make that pitcher grind. Like I said, it’s not just trying to be the hero; everybody goes to the plate with the same plan, trying to attack and get that guy out of there as quick as possible.”

Rowson, in his first year as the Yankees’ hitting coach, is tasked with formulating those game plans, and his ability to communicate them clearly and concisely is one of his strong suits. The 47-year-old New York native says the overarching philosophy is simple: Try to make the pitcher play into the batter’s strengths.

“Each hitter has individual strengths, so what part of the zone do I need to get this guy into in order to have success?” Rowson said. “And then, how stubborn can I be on forcing him to come into that area and not expanding and going into other areas where he may have success? I think when an offense is clicking on all cylinders, the guys are really good at following their game plan, and they’re stubborn, and they’re sticking to it.”

Throughout the first half, Soto demonstrated almost daily just how tenacious he could be in his first plate appearance. His first-inning on-base percentage through 81 games stood at .506, with 21 of his Major League-leading 65 walks having come in the opening frame. The 25-year-old four-time All-Star said that knowing he would be hitting second every game was beneficial when it came to scoring runs in the first inning so often.

“I think that’s one of the best things that a player can have because … it’s a little easier to know what your role is in the lineup and do what you can do,” Soto said. “It was going really great, we were getting it done and we were doing it a lot. Definitely, everybody wants to score first. I bet you all the teams in the league want to score first because they have a better chance to win a ballgame, so I think that’s what we try to do.”

Just as landing the first big blow of a boxing match can set a fighter on a good path toward winning the first round, having an effective leadoff man was key to the Yankees’ first-inning success. For much of the first half, that spark plug was second-year shortstop Anthony Volpe, whose aggressive approach helped spur on a 21-game hitting streak in May. At the halfway point of the season, Volpe had more first-inning triples (three) than walks (two), which was just fine by the captain.

“That’s what we kind of want him to do,” Judge said. “If you get a chance to drive something, go up there and drive it. I think just having that aggressive mindset puts it back on the pitcher. As players hitting behind him, we kind of feed off that, too, like, ‘Hey, AV’s ready to go, let’s go, let’s stay aggressive.’

“When he gets on first base, that single becomes a double or it could turn into a triple real quick. And then you’ve got a guy like Juan Soto, who’s going to see eight or nine pitches, get on base a lot, hit the ball the other way, hit the ball in the seats. It’s chaos from the very first pitch.”

Baseball, of course, is a never-ending game of adjustments, and while the tweaks Volpe made to his swing last offseason produced fantastic results over the season’s first couple months, pitchers around the league took notice and made their own countermoves. Wanting to optimize that leadoff spot ahead of Soto and Judge, Boone decided to move Volpe down in the lineup on July 4, explaining that the growing pains Volpe experienced at the plate in June were a normal part of any young player’s development.

“He’s still a very young player, figuring out who he is as a hitter, and finding his way and making a significant swing change and adjustment over the winter, there’s some ebb and flow with that through the course of the year,” Boone said. “I’ll bet on the person and the makeup and the talent that he’ll continue to become a more and more refined product as we go.”

For the 23-year-old Volpe, being surrounded by so many professional hitters who adhere to the game plan makes for an advantageous situation, no matter where he hits in the batting order. It’s common to see Yankees hitters communicating with each other throughout the ballgame about what the pitcher is doing, discussing what strategic adjustments might need to be made. “There’s information, and then there’s things they see with their eyes,” said Rowson. To his credit, Volpe continued to engage in all of those discussions even when he was scuffling personally.

“I think everyone trusts each other, that’s probably one of the biggest things,” Volpe said. “Regardless of who it is on the mound -- righty, lefty -- we feel like we can help the next guy out. And we feel like we want the help from anyone. So, I think there’s a lot of trust that goes into it, and we feel like we’ve had success that way.”

Whether it’s Ben Rice, Alex Verdugo, DJ LeMahieu or, eventually, Volpe again, the Yankees’ leadoff man will always have a chance to come around and score if he gets on in the first inning. Because after Soto shuffles his way through another extraordinarily tough at-bat, the baddest hitter on the planet lurks in the 3-hole.

***

When Marcus Stroman signed as a free agent with the Yankees in January, the veteran right-hander knew he would benefit from having Judge as a teammate, but the star slugger’s first half nonetheless had him in near disbelief.

The Yankees won seven of Stroman’s eight first-half road starts. In five of those eight contests, the offense plated at least one run before Stroman even threw a pitch in the bottom of the first. Judge homered on four of those five occasions and had an RBI single in the other one -- the kind of first-inning production that takes a ton of pressure off the pitcher.

“It just gives you a little bit more momentum and confidence going into the first, makes you pitch a little bit more aggressive,” Stroman said. “You just feel better about it. When you score runs, there’s more of a determination in you to get the team back in the dugout without letting up any runs. And like I said, I think it allows you to be a little more aggressive and really pitch to your strengths, rather than trying to kind of nitpick early on in a game.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly given some of Judge’s first-half accolades -- back-to-back AL Player of the Month Awards in May and June; a sixth career All-Star selection after receiving the most votes of any player in the Majors -- he was a huge reason for the Yankees’ first-inning success. Through 81 games (of which he started all but two), Judge clubbed 11 of his league-leading 29 home runs and tallied 20 of his MLB-high 75 RBIs in the first frame, and his .304 batting average at the time was buoyed by a .419 (26-for-62) clip in the opening stanza.

Impressive as those numbers were, they were nearly unfathomable back in early May, when Judge was still hitting below the Mendoza line. But Judge’s manager and coaches marvel at the 32-year-old’s ability to constantly make adjustments, never letting the peaks and valleys of a season (or a career) allow him to get too high or too low.

“We’re witnessing history,” said Rowson. “I love this game, and it’s pretty cool to watch him every day because we’ll look back on this and realize, the way that people talk about some of the greats -- Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron and Willie Mays -- we’re watching it again, live in front of us with how great he is.

“You can’t do what he does without being able to make adjustments in this league and make them quickly because you’ve got to believe the guys on the other side are trying to do something different, to not allow him to continue to do what he does. And yet, he constantly makes adjustments to what they’re doing, and he shows you he’s playing chess every day against the greatest pitchers in the world. He’s never played checkers a day in his life. If there was a level higher than the Major Leagues, that should be the league we promote him to.”

Boone noted that it was “hard to wrap your brain around” just how dominant Judge was in the first half, when his 1.128 OPS was more than 400 points higher than the league average and more than 100 points higher than the No. 2 player on the list, Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani. (Soto was third, at 1.004.) From the manager’s perspective, a slight change in the way Judge holds his bat this season “made him really efficient now in what he’s doing in the box,” but it’s the ninth-year veteran’s mental fortitude that makes him so special and so deserving of his captaincy.

“We talk about the ‘grind’ of the season,” Boone said. “That’s real. This thing is a gauntlet, and it’ll bring you to your knees if you let it. He handles that stuff so well. And I think in the end, at his core, it’s about winning. He wants to win. So, if we’re winning and doing the belt ceremony at the end of the night, shaking hands? All good. Whatever role he played -- and usually he’s got a big hand in it -- that’s what the goal is. When that’s your focus and your goal, it helps simplify things when you get between the lines.”

Keeping things simple has long been one of Judge’s core tenets. When he comes up for his first plate appearance of the day, he knows exactly what he wants to do. “I try to just read the situation,” Judge said. “If guys are on base, try to drop them in if they’re in scoring position; if there’s nobody on base, try to get on because ‘Big G’ and Verdugo are hitting right behind me, putting up great at-bats.”

It was no coincidence that the Yankees’ offensive production fell off after “Big G” -- Giancarlo Stanton -- left the June 22 game early with a hamstring strain, just after smacking his 10th double of the season, to go along with 18 homers. Getting Stanton back healthy in the second half will go a long way toward restoring the first-inning fusillade of the season’s first few months.

“When everybody is healthy and we can run out the same lineup every single day, I think that’s one thing that really helps us as players get comfortable,” Judge said. “Because now I know what Juan’s routine is. I know how he attacks guys. I know how they’re going to pitch to him, and it gives me a chance to see how they’re doing it. Having Verdugo behind me, I know what he’s going to do. I know there’s certain situations where maybe I can jump first pitch because I’ve got Verdugo behind me, he’s ready to go, and he’ll jump on that first pitch, too. So, it’s just all of us kind of feeding off each other, which I think has helped us have some success in the first.”

Judge added that when Stanton is the designated hitter, it lengthens a lineup that could potentially include a two-time All-Star second baseman in Gleyber Torres hitting seventh or eighth. Having that kind of dangerous presence in the bottom third of the order helps everyone, especially when it comes to executing the game plan.

“We have a lot of really good hitters and a lot of guys with different experience, and having a team approach, we want to use any benefit or any advantage we can,” said Volpe. “Coming together and deciding how we’re going to try to attack the pitcher is super beneficial. And having a lineup, one through nine, sticking to a plan, I think it’s tough for a pitcher to navigate through.”

There’s an alchemy to a well-constructed lineup that allows teams to reach great heights. Not only do individual players put up strong numbers, but the batting order seems to turn over more quickly, testing an opposing pitcher’s mental capacity to throw every pitch with 100% conviction.

“Our lineup is very deep, and it helps that those top three guys make it where now the starter is 20-25 pitches into the first inning; it’s not easy to command,” said Yankees starter Nestor Cortes. “Not everybody can get out of a 30-pitch inning without a run. That’s very hard to do. So, yeah, it’s fun to be on this side and not facing those top three guys.”

The Yankees came out of the All-Star break one game behind Baltimore, and with three games scheduled against their AL East foes next month, the division race figures to be must-see TV. Just don’t tune in late. Because Judge believes that this Yankees roster at full strength not only has the ability to draw first blood -- it also will fight to the finish.

“It’s a good mix,” he said. “That’s one thing that I tried to talk to a lot of people about, management and stuff, like, ‘Hey, you’ve got to win with the right people. You’ve got to get the right people in this room.’ I’m all for analytics and the numbers and what they say on paper, but the numbers have got to match the person. You’ve got to have good people in here that want to win, that want to play the game the right way. I think we’ve definitely found that on the position player side, so, we’re excited.”

Nathan Maciborski is the executive editor of Yankees Magazine. This story appears in the August 2024 edition. Get more articles like this delivered to your doorstep by purchasing a subscription to Yankees Magazine at www.yankees.com/publications.