Aaron Judge robbed Taylor Ward of two extra-base hits in a single series. The Yankees captain used his height to pull back two certain hits at the wall, as the two former college teammates faced off.

Both plays came at the wall in right field. During the first inning, Aaron Judge raced back and made a strong leaping catch to take a hit away from his former Fresno State teammate, who had lined the ball hard to right field.

The second one came two days later, when Judge again jumped at the wall and shut down Ward’s shot for extra bases in the third inning off a Max Fried pitch to end the inning.

After Fresno, Aaron Judge and Ward have never played on the same Major League Baseball team. Judge has spent his entire career with the New York Yankees, while Ward played for the Los Angeles Angels (2018–2025) before being traded to the Baltimore Orioles for the 2026 season.

As a star junior, Judge batted team-high 12 home runs, 15 doubles, and 36 RBIs in 56 games that season. As a freshman catcher, Ward batted .196 with 3 home runs and 15 RBIs in 46 games in 2013.

This season, Judge has been one of the best hitters in baseball again, with 13 homers, a .403 on-base percentage, a .628 slugging mark, and a 1.031 OPS. On the other hand, Ward is batting .295 with a team-leading 36 hits and 13 doubles.

Aaron Judge and Ben Rice team up to script MLB history

Rice and Judge became the fifth pair of teammates in MLB history to each hit 12 or more home runs through their team’s first 34 games.

The only power duos matched that feat were:

• Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra, for the Yankees in 1956
• Eddie Mathews and Henry Aaron for the Braves (1959)
• In 1994, Rockies, Ellis Burks, and Andres Galarraga matched this mark
• Manny Ramirez and Paul Sorrento of the Cleveland Indian reached this feat most recently in 1995

However, Judge and Rice didn't just match the 30-year-old feat; they matched a 70-year-old milestone. They joined Mantle and Berra by hitting 10 or more homers in the first 29 games for the first time since 1956.

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Written by

Md Saife Fida

Edited by

Sagnik Bagchi