TORONTO — Aaron Judge batted eighth on Opening Day after hitting last for the first game of spring training. On the first day of June, the talk of baseball was in the No. 3 spot Thursday night for the first time this year against the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre.
“We have moved him up slowly,’’ said Yankees manager Joe Girardi, who also has batted Judge seventh, sixth, fifth and cleanup this year. “He has the best numbers on the team, so it was time to move him up.’’
Judge entered an eventual 12-2 win as the third-leading vote-getter among outfielders when the initial batch of All-Star ballots were released this week. His 17 homers were tops in MLB and his 37 RBIs were tied for fourth in the American League.
Judge upped that total to 38 with a first-inning RBI single.
“My job doesn’t change,’’ Judge said of moving from fifth to third. “I have to touch first and touch home and if there are runners on base, drive them in.’’
Starlin Castro, who has batted cleanup 29 times this year and is seventh in the AL batting raced with a .324 average, was dropped to fifth and went 0-for-3.