NEW York Yankees stars have admitted their growing anger over the tactics rivals are using to stop Aaron Judge.
Judge was intentionally walked three more times in during Sunday’s meeting between the Yankees and the Toronto Blue Jays.
And outfielder Juan Soto has left nobody in any doubt over his feelings on the matter.
“It sucks because you want him at the plate,’’ Soto said.
“I’m doing my best to [get] him up and to see them pass him over really makes me mad.
I don’t like that. I want them to challenge him and see what he can really do.”
Despite his obvious annoyance, Soto accepted it’s very much part of the tactics of the game.
“They’re trying to win, too, so you respect that,” he said.
Judge became the first Yankee intentionally passed three times in an MLB game since Bernie Williams in September, 1999.
This followed on from the events of Saturday, when Judge clubbed a two-run shot in the first inning.
It was Judge’s 41st of the season, which is leading the league.
It was then that the Blue Jays walked Judge, with nobody on base and two outs.
The crowd at Yankee Stadium hollered their disapproval.
But Blue Jays manager John Schneider was pretty unrepentant after the game.
“I honestly didn’t feel like seeing him swing. That was kind of it,” Schneider said after the game.
“He’s in a different category I think than anyone else in the league.
“He can just flip the script of a game with one swing.”
It ended up being a pretty good weekend for the Yankees after losing 8-3 to Toronto on Friday.
They recovered to claim their own 8-3 victory on Saturday.
And the Yankees followed that up with a 4-3 win on Sunday, taking them to 67-46 for the season.
Now they face a triple header this week against the Los Angeles Angels.
The first of those games is on Tuesday night, followed by two further meetings on Wednesday and Thursday.