Last year, Aaron Judge, the home run king of the Major League Baseball (MLB) American League, hit a home run in the first game of the season.
In the 2023 season opener against San Francisco held at Yankee Stadium in New York on the 31st (Korean time), Judge started as the second batter in center field and hit a home run from the first at-bat.
At the end of the first inning, Judge, who entered the first at-bat in the absence of a runner with one out, hit opponent pitcher Logan Webb’s second pitch 92.8 mile (approximately 149.3 km) sinker and crossed the wall in the middle. He was the first home run in the major leagues this season, and the distance reached a whopping 128.6m.
Judge, who hit a home run from the first game of the season, challenges the home run king for the second year in a row. Judge hit 62 home runs last year, breaking the American League record for most home runs in a single season (61) set by Roger Maris in 1961.
He also broke the 60 home run mark in 21 years since Barry Bonds (73) and Sammy Sosa (64) in 2001. In particular, Mark McGwire, Sosa, and Bonds, who had previously hit 60 home runs, were found to have taken drugs, so Judge was nicknamed the “clean home run king.”
In the bottom of the 7th inning, when the team led 4-0, Judge completed a multi-hit by hitting 1 RBI with 2 out on 1st and 2nd base.안전놀이터 The Yankees defeated San Francisco 5-0 with Judge’s final shot.
Starting pitcher Gerrit Cole earned his first win of the season by pitching well with 3 hits, 2 walks, 11 strikeouts and no runs in 6 innings.