Red Sox Rookie Breaks Silence On Aaron Judge's HR After Viral Comment

Somehow, the 2025 Boston Red Sox added fuel to the fire and lived to tell the tale.

Before the rubber match of the Red Sox's three-game series with the New York Yankees, rookie starting pitcher Hunter Dobbins told the Boston Herald that he'd retire if New York was the only team to offer him a contract.

The Yankees, quite obviously, took that as bulletin board material, with third baseman Jazz Chisholm tweeting "free smoke at 7" in reference to gametime. And shortly after seven, Yankees captain (and future three-time Most Valuable Player) Aaron Judge took Dobbins deep to right-center.

But after allowing the Judge moonshot, Dobbins settled in, allowing only one more run in his efficient five-inning outing. And the Red Sox's bats came alive, delivering an 11-7 win that could help them finally generate some momentum. Dobbins seemed to know, though, that he got away with one.

“You can’t really say something like that and not expect a passionate fan base like the Yankees’ to say something,” Dobbins said, per Ryan Dunleavy of the New York Post. “If anything, it made the rivalry atmosphere feel a lot more fun. I enjoyed it a lot. Looking forward to more of it in the future to kind of get this rivalry going.”

Judge's home run was the longest opposite-field home run in Major League Baseball this season, at 436 feet, and the superstar said after the game that he had indeed noticed the rookie's comments.

"Judge is one of the best hitters of our generation," Dobbins said, per Christopher Smith of MassLive. “I left a pitch up. Made a good swing. I knew that was just one pitch. So you just kind of get back up there. You keep rolling. But as a starting pitcher, they need you to keep going. So you just kinda reset and go.”

The 25-year-old Dobbins now owns a 3-1 record and 4.20 ERA in 10 major league appearances, including eight starts. He's still got plenty of learning to do, but he's showing some serious moxie for a guy who was ninth or 10th on the starting pitching depth chart entering spring training.

Dobbins' next start will be against the Yankees on Saturday at Fenway Park, so he'll have a shot to double down on the "smoke" if he so desires.