Aaron Judge says Yankees players need to raise their standards

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Aaron Judge was tired of hearing about it.

The Yankees slugger heard enough about the team's slow start and that in a long season things would eventually click into gear. There was some real come-to-Jesus talks and this road trip was about doing something about it.

“Enough is enough. We’re better than this. We know we’re better than this. We gotta raise our standard fellas,” Judge said Thursday night before the Yankees faced the Blue Jays in the series finale at Sahlen Field. “I think once we kind of talked to each other and just kind of had some honest conversations, I think everybody kind of honed it in a little bit.

“Everyone might have been sitting there like ‘Hey, it’ll eventually get there, eventually we’ll get there.’ Well, eventually’s gotta happen right now,” Judge said. “We know that as a team and I know it’s a long season. We’re still not even halfway yet, but guys are just being accountable and I think we’re starting to see that.”

The Yankees went into Thursday night’s game having already taken the series from the Blue Jays and leapfrogged them in the American League East standings. They had a chance to head back to Yankee Stadium — where they were swept by the Red Sox for the first time in a decade last weekend — with a winning record on a road trip.

And Judge would very much like to take some momentum from this trip back to Yankee Stadium, that will be without COVID-19 restrictions for the first time since 2019.

“I hope it is sold out. I think Yankee fans and everyone’s gonna be waiting for this moment. I think us as players were and I was,” Judge said. “We want the fans to keep piling in and we get larger crowds, I think we’re starting to heat up as well so we could have Yankee Stadium that was sold out with a crowd to help us out.”

It would be a welcome sight for a team that hit some real lows on this trip.

The Yankees were swept by the Phillies after having their closer, Aroldis Chapman, blow a three-run lead in the final game of a three-game series in Minnesota. They came into the Blue Jays’ temporary home here — because of Canada’s strict COVID-19 travel restrictions — in fourth place behind the Blue Jays in the division and one game above .500. And their GM had to come to Buffalo and answer questions about his roster construction and the security of manager Aaron Boone and his coaches’ jobs.

That was something Judge really didn’t like.

He pointed out that Boone got heated and animated when talking to the team on this road trip and it “really perked the ears up.”

“That is on us. That comes on me specifically,” Judge said. “I am a leader of this team and I’ve got to step up and in big situations, step up in other situations, get on base, drive guys in you know make the right plays in the outfield. I would never put it on a manager or coach. It’s on the players, it’s always been on the players. We’re the ones playing the game. It’s on us.”

Judge was one of the few Yankees who was living up to expectations this season. Going into Thursday night’s game, he was hitting .316/.404/.556 with eight home runs and 17 RBIs since May 11.

After missing a game in Philadelphia with a back issue, which he said was fine on Thursday, Judge has played in every game of this series. He is tied with DJ LeMahieu at 64 games for the most played.

And in this series, Judge and the offense are taking that pressure off Boone and the coaching staff. They responded with a come-from-behind win in each of the first two games to take the series.

“Big time,” Judge said of this being an important series for them. “Think that shows what this team is made of. This whole year when we got down early we’ve been pretty flat. That is not the team we are. We’re a team that can come back 5-0, 3-0, doesn’t matter with this team. We started to show that a little bit in the Red Sox series, even though we didn’t do our job. This series against a good club like this that’s had our number all year and we take care of business.”