LIVE UPDATE For baseball fans, seeing Aaron Judge slam the ball into the bleachers has become routine. And he gave fans another stunning performance on the first day of the new season.

The 30-year-old, who just broke the American League record for home runs with 62 last season, blasted a 93 mph fastball from Logan Webb of the San Francisco Giants 422 feet over the center-field wall at Yankee Stadium on Thursday in the first inning.

That came in an easy 5-0 victory for the Yankees over the Giants and was his first home run of the year and the league overall.

According to Judge, who was speaking to MLB.com, “You really don’t hear much when you hit it and you’re racing the bases.” Yet, after I crossed home plate and saw my family there, heard the cheers of the fans, and saw my teammates, that’s when you start to take it all in a little bit.

Judge had a unique game since it was the first one he played in as the Yankees’ captain, the 16th in the team’s history.

Judge was greeted with “MVP” screams from the enthusiastic fans when he took the field on Thursday.

Judge returned the supporters’ trust by making them ecstatic with his home run.

The fact that Judge’s home run came against the team that tried to lure him away from New York over the summer and the franchise Judge supported as a youngster made the occasion even sweeter for Yankees fans.

Before agreeing to a nine-year, $360 million contract to stay with the Yankees, Judge had visited the Giants’ facilities and even been presented with a contract to move to California.

Judge said, “I didn’t want to go anyplace. “At first, I spoke up a lot about it. The free-agency procedure must be followed, but overall, this is where I want to be. I’m glad to be here.

Judge’s management was already impressed by his performance on Thursday.

Aaron Boone, manager of New York, reportedly stated after Judge’s home run, “That’s about as tough a guy as you’re going to do it against, right on right, Webb is going to keep you in the ballpark.”

“Not only is it a challenging task in and of itself to get a ball up like that and to smash it out on a chilly day, dead center. So, to give us a chance straight away in the first and allow Gerrit [Cole] sort of carry it from there… Especially after the setwe4toffseason, signing back and [being made] captain, for him to get us going like that was incredibly appropriate. more