SAN FRANCISCO — Aaron Judge has made a career out of rewriting record books. On Wednesday night, he added his name to one he would rather forget.
The two-time reigning American League MVP went 0-for-5 with four strikeouts in the Yankees’ 7-0 Opening Day rout of the Giants at Oracle Park. He was the only starter in the New York lineup who failed to record a hit. It was, by any measure, the worst single-game performance of his otherwise brilliant career on a night when the rest of the roster had no trouble producing.
The boos started early. Judge, who grew up a Giants fan in the Central Valley town of Linden, Calif., and starred at Fresno State, was jeered during pregame introductions. The Oracle Park crowd, still stinging from his decision to turn down San Francisco during free agency in 2022 and sign a nine-year, $360 million deal with the Yankees, let him hear it before every at-bat.
None of it rattled the Yankees as a team. But for Judge individually, it was a night to move past quickly.
Judge earns golden sombrero in historic fashion
Logan Webb struck out Judge swinging in the first inning, caught him looking in the second and got him on a foul tip in the fourth. Keaton Winn then froze Judge with a called third strike in the sixth. His only non-strikeout came in the ninth, when he grounded out to third base.
It was the 15th time in his career that Judge recorded four or more strikeouts in a game. He did it five times during his 2024 MVP campaign. He did not do it once in 152 games during the 2025 season.
But it was what MLB.com’s Sarah Langs uncovered that made Wednesday’s performance truly unusual. According to Langs, Judge became the first reigning MVP in MLB history to earn a golden sombrero in a season opener. The previous high was three strikeouts, a mark shared by Willie Stargell in 1980, Sammy Sosa in 1999, Mike Trout in 2015, Josh Donaldson in 2016 and Kris Bryant in 2017.
It is the kind of record that no player wants, and one that Judge will almost certainly render meaningless over the next 161 games. But for one night, the biggest name in baseball was also the quietest bat in the Yankees order.
A slow start is nothing new for Judge
There is no reason for Yankees fans to panic. Judge has been here before.
During his 2024 Yankees MVP campaign, he posted a .754 OPS through the first month before erupting in May and June on his way to a .322/.458/.701 slash line with 58 home runs. Even in his five four-strikeout games that year, the Yankees slugger finished as the most dominant hitter in baseball.
Last season was even better from a contact standpoint. The Yankees captain batted a career-best .331 with 53 home runs and 114 RBIs. His strikeout rate dropped to 23.6%, a steady decline from the 30.7% he posted as a rookie in 2017. The fact that he lowered that number every year without sacrificing power makes one bad night look like exactly what it is: an outlier.
Judge also came into the season after competing for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic, where he went 6-for-27. The transition from the WBC back to regular-season pitching may have played a factor. The Yankees were most pleased this spring with how he bounced back from the flexor strain in his right elbow that put him on the injured list last year. He showed no lingering effects and made an especially strong throw to third base during a WBC game that proved his arm strength was fully restored.
The Yankees won without him and that matters
Perhaps the most encouraging takeaway from Wednesday is that the Yankees did not need Judge to dominate. Max Fried threw 6 1/3 shutout innings. Jose Caballero, Ryan McMahon, Austin Wells and Trent Grisham carried the offense from the bottom of the order. Seven of nine Yankees starters collected at least one hit.
That kind of depth was the whole point of the Yankees running back essentially the same roster. When the best player in the game has his worst night, the Yankees lineup around him should be able to pick up the slack. On Opening Day, it did exactly that.
Judge closing in on another Yankees milestone
Even with four more strikeouts on his ledger, Judge’s career total of 1,373 puts him 81 away from passing Jorge Posada for third place on the Yankees’ all-time strikeout list. While the stat does not sound flattering, context matters. Strikeout rates across baseball have skyrocketed since the turn of the century. The fact that Judge has steadily reduced his own rate while maintaining elite power production makes the number less alarming than it appears on the surface.
If there is any consolation for Judge, it is what comes next. He is 3-for-8 with three home runs against Friday’s opposing starter, left-hander Robbie Ray. He has also walked six times and struck out just once in those matchups. History suggests the golden sombrero will be a distant memory by the weekend.
The Yankees have 161 games left and, they hope, October after that. Judge has produced three of the greatest offensive seasons in modern history over the last four years. One ugly night in San Francisco will not change the expectations in the Bronx.
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