Aaron Judge makes Yankees history with putrid Opening Day performance

As the New York Yankees opened the 2026 season with a 7-0 win over the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday night, the one area that stood out like a sore thumb was star Aaron Judge and his performance. With Judge’s Opening Day performance for the Yankees leaving little left to be desired, he would also achieve the wrong type of franchise history.

According to Katie Sharp, Judge is the first player in Yankees history to record five plate appearances, four strikeouts, and zero hits on Opening Day. It was no doubt a rough game for Judge, who also made more history on Opening Day with his four strikeouts after being the AL MVP the year prior, where he recorded 53 home runs, 114 RBIs, and a .331 batting average.

“Aaron Judge is the first reigning MVP to strike out four times on Opening Day in the following season,” David Salituro wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Still, Judge’s presence wasn’t necessarily needed in the statsheet as New York handled business against the Giants, leading to manager Aaron Boone speaking on how it “was a great way to start things,” according to MLB.com.

“You want to get that first win, first hits,” Boone said. “You want to get into that normal rhythm of the season, which takes a little bit of time. Obviously, it was a great way to start things.”

Aaron Judge has support on the Yankees

Yankees pitcher Max Fried got the Opening Day nod and started his season with a standout outing, recording 6.1 scoreless innings, striking out four, allowing two hits, and a walk. He would even speak about having “a lot of really good players” to support Judge.

“This team led the Majors in runs scored [849] last year, and we have a lot of the same guys back,” Fried said. “One through nine, we can beat you. We obviously have the best player in the world [Aaron Judge] hitting for us, but we also have a lot of really good guys able to support him.”

At any rate, New York starts the season 1-0 as the series against the Giants continues on Friday.

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