Vince Velasquez had an impressive outing against the New York Yankees in an exhibition game on Monday that came to an odd ending.
Velasquez’s stats for the game showed that he pitched five innings, allowing four hits, one run, a walk and six strikeouts — a very fine pitching line. Things were going so well that Phillies manager Joe Girardi decided to have Velasquez face an extra batter after getting three outs in the bottom of the fifth. Just for practice, Velasquez faced Aaron Judge, who hit a monster home run.
Joe Girardi just broke baseball. He had Vince Velasquez face Aaron Judge, even though Philly already got three outs in the inning.
Then Judge homered. What do we do?!?
— Bryan Hoch (@BryanHoch) July 20, 2020
Enjoy this home run that may or may not have been hit by @TheJudge44 #AllRise? pic.twitter.com/klb8N0Uhym
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) July 21, 2020
Judge definitely got the best of him with that swing. The home run was the only run charged to Velasquez in the stats.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone explained after the exhibition game that the reason Velasquez faced the extra batter was because Girardi wanted Velasquez to reach a certain pitch count. He gave up a homer while doing so. Velasquez went 7-8 with a 4.91 ERA last season and is trying to lock up one of the final spots in the Phillies’ pitching rotation.
