New York Yankees' Aaron Judge hits a two-run home run during the seventh inning of a baseball game against the Athletics, Sunday, June 29, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)
Republished June 29, 2025 - 5:44 PM
Original Publication Date June 29, 2025 - 3:46 PM
NEW YORK (AP) — Tyler Ferguson graduated from Clovis West High School in Fresno, California, when Aaron Judge hit .308 as a sophomore at Fresno State in 2012.
Toward the end of last season after making his debut with the Athletics following nine seasons in the minor leagues, Ferguson told a local TV station he wanted to strike out Judge when the Yankees made their trip to Oakland.
Ferguson didn't face Judge in appearances against New York last September and last month in West Sacramento, California, but got his chance Sunday. On the ninth pitch of a seventh-inning at-bat, Judge drove a 95.5 mph four-seam fastball 426 feet. The two-run drive into the visitors' bullpen in left-center was Judge's second two-run homer of the game and 30th home run this season, capping the Yankees' 12-5 win.
“Best hitter in the league,” Ferguson said. “So I was looking forward to that at-bat. I was able to get ahead and then wasn’t able to execute a couple of pitches and he was able to get it back to 3-2 and I didn’t get the ball quite as high as I would have liked and he made a good swing on it.”
Judge had his 44th multi-homer game and reached 30 homers for the fifth straight season and sixth time overall. He knows Ferguson but wasn't aware of the strikeout comment.
“I didn’t go to a lot of Fresno State games, but I just remember him being a highly touted prospect and obviously a large human being, very recognizable," Ferguson said, “but it’s impressive how he’s continued to just get better and better as he’s gotten older.”
Judge had entered in a 10-for-56 slide with three homers and four RBIs since June 12, dropping his batting average 40 points to .354. He was playing with a bad back.
“Just a little banged-up pregame, and I think that helped me out,” he said. “Just do a little less. I don’t know. I don’t know. It got me right.”
Judge's 345 homers have come off 261 pitchers. His fourth-inning drive to left was off former teammate Luis Severino.
Ferguson debuted with the A’s on May 7 last year and had made two scoreless appearances against the Yankees before Judge homered. Selected by Texas in the sixth round of the 2015 amateur draft out of Vanderbilt, Ferguson never advanced above Class A with Texas and spent 2019 playing independent baseball in Quebec, Canada.
After being released by the Dodgers in 2020 when the minor league season was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ferguson joined the Braves following a brief stint with the American Association's Chicago Dogs.
Ferguson reached Triple-A with Atlanta and spent 2023 with Arizona's Triple-A Reno Aces. The A’s signed him to a minor league contract in November 2023 and called him up last year after 14 games with Triple-A Las Vegas.
“It was about nine, 10 years in the minors between when I got drafted to when I made my debut last year,” Ferguson said. “So it was a long ride, but happy to be here and just trying to get better and trying not to give up (home runs) and make better pitches.”
___
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB
News from © The Associated Press, 2025