ARLINGTON, Texas — Aaron Judge is looking forward to facing rookie National League starting pitcher Paul Skenes, but the New York Yankees slugger might need some help to make that happen in the All-Star Game on Tuesday.
Judge, who leads the majors with 34 home runs at the break, is batting fourth for the American League and Skenes, named NL starter last week, is “unlikely” to pitch more than one inning, National League manager Torey Lovullo said.
“We’ve got a good lineup. I think somebody will work a good count or get a base hit. So we’ll see what happens,” Judge said.
“I’ve watched a couple of his games the last couple weeks since he got called up. It’s special stuff, electric stuff,” Judge said about the Pittsburgh Pirates rookie pitcher. “You can talk about the velocity on his pitches, but the guy is a pitcher. He can work all three, four, five of his pitches, throw it any part of the zone, any count. He’s a complete pitcher. It’s going to be fun.”
Even if Skenes zooms through the first inning, Lovullo said he is leaning toward going to the bullpen for the second inning.
“Most likely, no. We have 11-12 pitchers to get through,” Lovullo said. “That’s probably the hardest part of being the manager, is trying to get every pitcher in the game.”
Skenes said it would be cool to face Judge when asked if he wanted to face the slugger.
Judge follows Yankees teammate Juan Soto in the batting order revealed Tuesday by Texas Rangers manager Bruce Bochy, who leads the AL coaching staff. American League batting leader Steven Kwan (Cleveland Guardians) is leading off with Baltimore Orioles shortstop Gunnar Henderson to follow. Kwan has a .407 on-base percentage and Henderson hit 28 home runs before the break.
“What do I think?” Bochy asked Monday afternoon of Skenes. “He’s a beast.”