The split-fingered fastball fairly winked at Aaron Judge as it passed his field of vision. Judge did not fall for its false charm. He watched this changeup disguised as a fastball from Red Sox pitcher Nathan Eovaldi tumble ever so slightly below the outside corner of home plate. Ball one.
That Aug. 12 pitch might have been just another one of the 12,593 pitches Judge had seen to that point in his career with the Yankees, including 104 from Eovaldi, except for what happened next. What no one saw ranked at least as amazing as the unmistakable percussive punishment Judge delivered to the next pitch. It was the advanced calculus known by only an elite hitter—part homework, part intuition, part pattern recognition from those 12,000 pitches. It is the reason Judge is chasing home run history.
Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated
