Yankees manager Aaron Boone breaks down bizarre incident when Anthony Volpe left Aaron Judge bloodied

New York Yankees captain Aaron Judge is in the race for a third American League MVP title. However, the two-time MVP was involved in a bizarre incident that could've put the brakes on his scintillating season.

During the Yankees' 12-6 loss against the New York Mets on Saturday at Citi Field, Aaron Judge's teammate Anthony Volpe caught him by surprise. Following the fourth inning, Volpe threw the ball towards Judge, who wasn't looking at the ball. The Yankees' captain was hit in the face, resulting in a cut below his eye.

Judge remained in the game with a bandaid near his eye. Yankees manager Aaron Boone didn't see the accident unfold but was concerned after seeing Judge bleeding.

“I didn’t know what happened initially,” Boone said. “I just saw what felt like something happened. Of course I was concerned. [Judge] had a little cut. In the end, I don’t think it’s anything too serious. Initially, obviously very concerned.”

Boone broke down the incident in Tuesday's appearance on the Talkin' Yanks podcast. The Yankees manager said (35:00 onwards):

"Yeah, when it happened, I didn't know what happened, I just felt like something, chaos or something. I'm like, 'What's going on, what's going on,' like, Judgey's going down, they said, 'He's bleeding.' I'm like, 'Oh no.' That was not a great couple of minutes there."

Aaron Judge, Cal Raleigh deliver in Yankees-Mariners series opener

After a few quite outings, Aaron Judge has rediscovered his hitting form at the plate. Following a home run in the Subway Series finale against the Mets on Sunday, the Yankees captain went deep against the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday, helping his team to a 10-3 win.

Judge went 2-for-5 in the series opener at Yankee Stadium, smashing his 34th home run of the season. He cut Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh's lead to just one dinger on the home run charts. However, Raleigh followed Judge's seventh-inning home run with a two-run shot in the eighth to take his tally to 36 homers this season.

About the author

Chaitanya Prakash is an editor who covers US Sports at Sportskeeda. His first brush with sportswriting was in 2012 when the greatest football manager of all time, Sir Alex Ferguson, bid farewell to the beautiful game.

Although having started out professionally as a cricket writer in 2022, Chaitanya's curiosity and indiscriminate interest in all sports in general eventually introduced him to America's favorite pastime.

While Chaitanya's favorite player from the current crop is the dynamic Venezuelan Ronald Acuna Jr., his all-time favorite, however, is Pedro Martinez, for his self-belief and consistency. He also rates Jose Bautista's iconic bat flip in 2015 as his favorite moment in baseball history.

Chaitanya specializes in reporting on technical aspects of the game or analyzing patterns behind specific plays. He also likes pondering over players' self-assessments following the conclusion of a game as it helps him get an idea of how they think about the sport in general.

When not cheering for his favorites across sports, Chaitanya likes being transported to the past through a good war documentary or a historical documentary in general.

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Edited by Chaitanya Prakash