WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Aaron Judge celebrated his return to the Sacramento area by hitting two home runs Saturday for the New York Yankees against the Athletics to extend his major league lead to 14.
Judge is playing in the Sacramento area for the first time since college in New York’s first visit to the A’s temporary home near California’s capital.
Judge was born in Sacramento and grew up not far away in Linden and had many friends and family in the crowd of 12,113 at the minor league park that is hosting the A’s.
“It just felt like being home,” Judge said after the Yankees’ loss on Friday night. “Any time we play the A’s, that’s always something that’s familiar to me and close to home, to me. It was special.”
After going 1 for 4 with a walk and two near homers , Judge granted A’s owner John Fisher his wish on Saturday.
He led off the 4th inning with a homer off JP Sears and then connected again to lead off the sixth against Justin Sterner to the delight of the Yankees fans in attendance, many of whom chanted “MVP! MVP!”
The second homer gave Judge 14 on the season and pushed his average above the .400 mark as he is off to a sizzling start to the season. Judge’s 41 career multi-homer games are fourth most in Yankees history.
When the A’s announced their plans last season to play in this minor league park, Fisher said he was excited to see what players like Judge could do in a stadium known for offense.
“We’re excited to be here for the next three years playing in this beautiful ballpark, but also being able to watch some of the best players in baseball, whether they be Athletics players or Aaron Judge and others launch home runs out of this very intimate, the most intimate ballpark in all of Major League Baseball,” he said.
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