WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. (news agencies) — Aaron Judge sure got the rock-star treatment from hundreds of Little Leaguers who went wild for the New York Yankees slugger — holding out baseballs for autographs, pleading for selfies, even asking him about the size of his muscles — from the moment he stepped off the plane to his last at-bat.
“They’re making me feel like The Beatles out there,” Judge said.
Judge even wore a Little League hat to his press conference, proud of the deal he swung with some kids to obtain the cap and collectible pins for Yankees swag.
He would have traded a little more for a win.
Parker Meadows set off fireworks with a 10th-inning single that brought hundreds of Little Leaguers to their feet and scored Zach McKinstry on a headfirst slide to give the Detroit Tigers a 3-2 victory over the Yankees on Sunday night in the Major League Baseball Little League Classic.
The Little Leaguers who made Judge the star attraction — he finished 1 for 4 — had to wait until the ninth inning for the real excitement to start.
“Some memories I’ll never forget,” Judge said. “I just wish the game turned out a little different.”
Detroit rookie Jace Jung tied it at 1 when he ripped an RBI single against Clay Holmes with two outs in the ninth. That scored Colt Keith, who hit a one-out double off the All-Star closer to spark a rally that handed Holmes his 10th blown save this season.
DJ LeMahieu’s single in the top of the 10th brought home the automatic runner for a 2-1 Yankees lead, only for McKinstry to make it 2-all when his single scored Detroit’s automatic runner.
McKinstry stole second and dashed home on Meadows’ base hit to left field off Mark Leiter Jr. (3-5), as Yankees prospect Jasson Domínguez hesitated for a moment before throwing late to the plate.
Beau Brieske (2-3) worked one inning for the win.
Gleyber Torres scored on a wild pitch by Tigers ace Tarik Skubal in the sixth to give New York a 1-0 lead.
The crowd of mostly Little Leaguers and their coaches and families — oh, and injured Yankees infielder Jazz Chisholm Jr. — were among the 2,532 fans at Historic Bowman Field who came to see Judge go deep. Or maybe Juan Soto.
What they got was a game that resembled so many Little League matchups each year across the globe. A run scored on a wild pitch. A batter who struck out reached first base on another wild pitch. A runner was out at the plate by a mile trying to make something happen.
The big leaguers were supposed to rub off on the kids playing in the Little League World Series.
Turned out the Tigers and Yankees made a few silly mistakes themselves.
The final score didn’t seem to matter much to most of the kids who cheered in their Little League uniforms and lined the first few rows of a stadium that opened in 1926.
Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole joined the ESPN broadcast booth — well, make it a few stadium seats behind home plate — and chatted with one Little Leaguer. Chisholm, who used a handheld video camera to capture the action, said he made friends with a player named Russell McGee from Nevada and even followed the kid on Instagram.
“Now he’s like my little brother, ” Chisholm said.
Sure beats catching a foul ball.
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