"I couldn't let Juan Soto hit five homers against us" - White Sox manager explains backfired decision leading to Aaron Judge's 300th career home run
Chicago White Sox interim manager Grady Sizemore faced criticism for intentionally walking Juan Soto, which led to Aaron Judge's 300th home run during their game against the Yankees on August 14. The 42-year-old explained his decision on the JM Baseball podcast.
Grady Sizemore reasoned that his intention was to stop Soto from going yard five times in two days.
"Soto already had four homers in that series already. He was crushing us and not that I want to walk anyone to get to Judge but I had an open base and the game was getting away from us, so I just couldn't let Soto hit five home runs against us in that situation," Sizemore said.
Leading up to the series finale, Juan Soto had a near-perfect outing in the second game of the series as he powered himself to three home runs and drove in all the runs during their 4-1 win. The day after, on the 14th, Soto started the scoring for the Yankees in the first inning with yet another home run.
This prompted Grady Sizemore to intentionally walk Soto in the eighth inning. However, that meant having Aaron Judge at the plate, who was in red-hot form himself.
On a 3-0 pitch, the Yanks captain avoided a walk and struck an inside pitch for a three-run homer and the 300th of his career. This was the first time since 2021 that he hit a 3-0 pitch out of the park.
Aaron Judge was angered by Juan Soto's intentional walk
After the game, Judge told the media that he was incensed by the White Sox's decision. That eventually led him to chase the 3-0 pitch, to which he could have shown some restraint but instead hit his record-breaking home run
"I was mad about the intentional walk, so that kind of fueled," Judge said. "Usually 3-0, I'll take a pitch, see a pitch, kind of pass it on to the next guy. But in that situation, if they don't want to pitch to you, you got to come through."
This tactic, which has been implemented by plenty of other teams, has made Yankees manager Aaron Boone wary too. For Judge and Soto to drive in runs, teams will have to pitch to them. But for now, they aren't doing too badly, with 51 and 37 home runs, respectively.