New York Yankees designated hitter Aaron Judge (99) reacts after striking out against Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher Jose Berrios (not pictured) during the fourth inning at Yankee Stadium. Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

Watch: Blue Jays resort to desperate move to pitch around Aaron Judge

Originally posted on Larry Brown Sports | By Grey Papke | Last updated Aug 3, 2024 6:57 PM ET

New York Yankees star Aaron Judge is officially getting the Barry Bonds treatment — and then some.

Toronto Blue Jays manager John Schneider on Saturday opted to intentionally walk Judge in the second inning, even though there were two outs and nobody on base. According to Baseball Reference, this was the first time in at least 50 years that a player was intentionally walked with nobody on and two out in the first two innings of a game.

This is the 1st time in over 50 years that an MLB batter has been intentionally walked with two outs and no one on base in the first two innings of a game. https://t.co/NDzVKwML8d

— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) August 3, 2024

There were plenty of Bonds comparisons, but even Bonds never had this happen to him. While there were plenty of instances where Bonds was intentionally walked with two on and none out, none of them happened this early in a game.

Yes (thanks to @baseball_ref). Bonds was intentionally walked 41 times with the bases empty and 24 of those were with 2 outs. None of those 24 were in the first 2 innings of a game.

— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) August 3, 2024

Judge had already hit a two-run home run in the first inning, which is likely why the Blue Jays were on high alert. Curiously, they did pitch to Judge in the exact same situation in the fourth inning, and struck him out.

It remains to be seen if any other teams will consider this very unusual tactic with Judge. At a certain point, you have to pitch to him, but when he gets hot, it’s tough to actually fault this strategy.

This article first appeared on Larry Brown Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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