Aaron Judge's Perfect Response to Yankees Rookie's Historic Night

On Friday night in Oakland, the Yankees' rookie outfielder did what even Aaron Judge hasn’t been able to do: he hit three home runs in one game. He hit his first right-handed home run in the big leagues, he hit his first grand slam in the majors. Dominguez became the youngest Yankee to hit three homers in a game since some guy named Joe DiMaggio way back.

And no one seemed more excited about it than Judge.

“That was incredible,” Judge told reporters, grinning like a proud older brother. “Just going back to spring training, the work he put in when nobody was really watching—on defense, in the cage—it’s all paying off. To have a night like this, three homers? That’s just special. You saw the reaction in our dugout. Everybody was fired up for him. He’s going to have a fantastic year, and this is just one of those special nights we all got to witness.”

Judge has been the face of the Yankees long enough to know how rare a moment like this is. He also knew it was a moment to acknowledge all that Dominguez had done to get to this point after a slow start with much criticism.

“Jasson steps in, ready to hit. First pitch fastball—fouls it off. Next pitch, guy throws a changeup on the corner, and he barrels it out to right-center. That’s impressive,” Judge said. “Then he gets to the grand slam—bases loaded, big moment, and he’s as calm as ever. Perfect swing, perfect result.”