Aaron Judge launched two long home runs and Spencer Jones hit one, too, as the Yankees beat the Detroit Tigers, 20-3, in their second game of Grapefruit League play on Saturday in Tampa.
New York made up for being shut out in Friday's Grapefruit League opener and finished the day with 18 hits and 11 walks.
Here are the takeaways...
- Judge, getting his first action of the spring, lined out to center in the first inning, before he tattooed a cutter at the knees 420 feet to center (104.5 mph off the bat) for a two-run home run in the third off veteran right-hander Burch Smith.
Judge added another two-run shot in the fourth, taking an up-and-in fastball from long-time minor leaguer Ricky Vanasco and keeping it fair down the left field line. The 92 mph heater went out in a hurry, 106.1 mph off the bat, and 395 feet just inside the foul pole.
- Jones, sporting a bit of a Shohei Ohtani-type toe tap, launched a monster home run with one out in the second. The big lefty took a Keider Montero up-and-in fastball 408 feet (111.7 mph off the bat) for a very Ohtani-like no-doubt homer. He went down swinging on a changeup off the plate to end the third inning, his next time up.
Jones used the Yanks' first challenge as a batter of the spring in the fifth, but the low strike was correctly called as it did clip the bottom of the zone. He went down swinging on the next pitch, chasing a slider outside the zone.
- Carlos Lagrange got the start for the Yanks and allowed a bullet, one-out single to Kevin McGonigle, the No. 2 prospect in all of baseball, in the first and nearly got his head taken off by a liner up the middle off Gleyber Torres' bat. The big Yankee youngster burned in the two fastballs at 100.5 mph and 98.2 mph, but they went for hits at 104.5 mph and 101.7 mph.
The Tigers got on the board after catcher Ali Sánchez couldn’t block a third strike in the dirt, and his throw to third went right past Ryan McMahon, scoring McGonigle. The No. 3 prospect in the NY system finished the inning with a second strikeout, showing off a very live arm.
Lagrange had the changeup working, but he left one up and over the plate to Corey Julks, and he tagged it 387 feet to left field for a solo home run to leadoff the third. After walking the next batter, the right-hander got the next two before issuing a two-out walk, and Aaron Boone was out of the dugout. His final line: 2.2 innings, two runs (one earned) on three hits, two walks, two strikeouts on 53 pitches (32 strikes).
"What I've been pleased with in just his first couple of life outings, and now obviously here, just filling up the strike zone for the most part. That's the next step for him," Boone said on the YES broadcast about Lagrange. "You see all of the stuff, the big fastball, really good changeup – although he gave up the homer on the changeup that he hung today – and then the sweeper. I like that he was in the zone for the most part with all of it."
On the day, Lagrange threw 19 fastballs (99.8 mph average), 11 changeups, his second-best pitch and one highly thought of (91.5 mph average), and 13 sliders, a pitch that was working well to upset the Tigers' timing with five called strikes.
"He's been excellent all camp so far," Boone said of the 6-foot-7 starter. "Really, really good kid, really good makeup. Kinda has developed into a leader coming up through the minor leagues."
- McMahon took a two-strike 97 mph fastball the other way for a ground-rule double into the corner in left with one down in the first inning. The Yanks have encouraged McMahon to have a narrower, less open stance, and it looked pretty good in his first time up. He finished the day 1-for-3 with a strikeout.
- Paul Goldschmidt, with runners on second and third and one out in the first, took a 3-2 fastball at the top of the zone and smacked it into left field to put the Yanks up 2-1. The veteran hit one right on the screws (108.3 mph) for a lineout to left his second time up. He reached on an infield single on another hard-hit ball (107.5 mph) in the fourth to finish the game 2-for-3 with two batted in.
- Jasson Dominguez, who walked his first time up, made a nice play to start the second when he got a good jump on a sharply hit liner to left to record the out. He reached second on a ‘double’ to start the fourth when Julks in left field lost a pop fly while battling a bright sunny sky. He added a sacrifice fly to center in the fourth.
- George Lombard Jr. got a RBI chance in his first at-bat with two on and two in scoring position in the fifth, and the Yanks’ top prospect bounced out to short.
- Out of the bullpen, David Bednar worked around a one-out walk with a double play ball, needing just 10 pitches for a clean fourth, and Fernando Cruz used six pitches in a 1-2-3 fifth.
- Sanchez got involved with the ABS challenge system in the third inning. He lost on his first attempt when the ball was indeed outside (by 0.8 inches) and was successful on his second with a strike that caught the bottom of the zone. At the plate, the catcher went 1-for-2 on the day with a strikeout.
- The game blew open in the eighth inning after the Tigers' pitchers just lost the plot with four walks and a Roderick Arias grand slam before a few singles and a Jackson Castillo three-run shot in the nine-run inning.
Highlights
What's next
The Yankees host the Mets in Tampa on Sunday with a 1:05 p.m. first pitch.
Luis Gil is set to start for the Bronx-based club, with Justin Hagenman getting the ball for the boys from Queens.
Rockets
Knicks
