Aaron Judge spoke out on Tuesday about the New York Yankees’ decision to bench one of the team’s best players to begin the Wild Card round.
The Boston Red Sox gave the ball to left-handed ace Garrett Crochet to start Game 1 at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, N.Y. Yankees manager Aaron Boone countered by inserting a right-handed hitter in Amed Rosario to replace the team’s left-handed-hitting second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr.
The move didn’t pay off as the Yankees fell 3-1, leading Chisholm to blow off reporters after the loss.
Judge was asked about the decision during a postgame media scrum. The AL MVP finalist assured reporters that the team would deal with the situation internally.
“It will cause some drama on the outside, but in here we’ll definitely be good,” the Yankees slugger said, via SNY’s Andy Martino. “Inside this clubhouse, we’re all good. We’re pulling for each other. We’ll be good. There’s always a storm on the outside — but we can’t work that way.”
Likely adding to Chisholm’s frustration was seeing Rosario go 0-for-3 in the contest. Rosario was replaced by Chisholm in the top of the eighth inning, with Jazz’s lone at-bat coming during the biggest spot of the game.
With the Yankees trailing 3-1, Jazz came up to the plate with the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the ninth inning. He flew out to right field as New York failed to score despite loading the bases to begin the frame.
Boone had three other left-handed hitters — Cody Bellinger, Trent Grisham, and Austin Wells — in the Yankees’ lineup to start the game.
