One intentional walk is noticeable enough but three really stands out, especially considering before Sunday a player was intentionally walked 196 times according to baseball-reference and 25 times since Barry Bonds last appeared in a game for the San Francisco Giants in 2007.
The Bonds treatment is starting to emerge for Aaron Judge, who was issued a highly unique and rare free pass with two outs and nobody on in the second inning on Saturday.
And based on the remarks of Toronto Blue Jays manager John Schneider after the first intentional walk in that situation and that early in a game since 1972, the strategy was going increase significantly.
To review Schneider watched Judge hit his 41st homer and postgame he basically said there was no desire to see Judge swing the bat again.
The Blue Jays took those comments even more literally Sunday, making Judge along with Jose Ramirez as the only two players with three intentional free passes in the past three seasons.
To show how rare it is, look at the strategy since Bonds’ last three intentional walk game on April 27, 2007 against the Arizona Diamondbacks, who by coincidence purposely walked him with the bases loaded on May 28, 1998 under Buck Showalter.
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Since the last of Bonds’ 16 three intentional walk games, the only players with multiple instances of those games are David Ortiz, Miguel Cabrera, Albert Pujols and Bryce Harper. At this rate, perhaps you can expect Judge to be the fifth, especially with how it unfolded Sunday.
It is a scenario where managers are willing to take their chances against the personnel behind the star and three times it worked out when deployed by a team who expected to battling the Yankees for a playoff spot and not entering a development phase for the final two months.
The first instance occurred in the fifth when the Blue Jays issued three straight walks before striking out Giancarlo Stanton. The next time it occurred was the seventh after Juan Soto homered and then again in the eighth following a double by Soto. Each time, the same pitcher whom the Blue Jays did not want to see throw any pitches to Judge executed against an improving Austin Wells and Stanton, who is still less than a week into returning from a hamstring injury.
“So far, so good," Schneider said. "Again, it's nothing against my pitchers. And nothing against anyone else in their lineup. It's singularly focused around how talented Aaron is, and the numbers that he's put up, basically at a historic pace. The less times he can swing, the better. I think we're facing a guy who's that good. If we played them again, I would do the same thing again."
The Yankees will face seven more managers they have yet to match wits against, notably Bruce Bochy and the Texas Rangers and while slightly sympathetic to the plight of trying to make pitchers against Judge, the strategy is hardly pleasing.
“You want him at the plate,” Juan Soto said. “I’m doing my best to put him up and you see them pass him over. It just really makes me mad. I don’t like that. I want them to challenge him and see what he can really do. It is what it is. It’s part of the game. They’re trying to win too, so you respect that.”
So far, the strategy paid off against the Yankees, who eventually figured out a way to win. The intrigue will lie in any possible postseason games and whether by then the Yankees will be able to competently answer the question about who can get big hits behind Judge.
“It's strategic," Gerrit Cole said. "I love watching him hit, so I wish they wouldn't do it."
The Yankees appeared somewhat better suited to handling it, especially by comparison to the night of July 23 against the Mets. Back then J.D. Davis was the cleanup hitter and the Mets had little qualms about unintentionally walking Judge three times.
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There will be times when opponents will pitch to Judge. As much of a storyline about if he can exceed the 62 homers from two seasons ago, the matter of actually pitching to him will come into significant focus.
“I feel way better equipped from a lineup standpoint now to handle that and deal with that and make it hurt," Boone said. "So we'll take the baserunners and take our chances."
