Picture Credit: Twitter
New York Yankees registered an incredible 9-1 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays at the Rogers Stadium thanks to another dominant performance by their right fielder Aaron Judge. The 30-year-old hit two home runs and had an RBI of three with an average of 303.
One of his home runs against Alek Manoah’s fastball surged into the crowd and was caught in Blue Jays fan Mike Lanzillotta’s hot tag tray. Just behind him, there was Derek Rodriguez, a die-hard Yankees fan who was sad as he couldn’t get the ball. Looking at this Lanzillotta gave the nine-year-old the homerun ball making his day.
Surprisingly this moment was caught on camera and later Aaron Judge took notice and met both of them. Rodriguez got extremely emotional and hugged Judge. Addressing the moment Rodríguez said, “I was so happy. All I can remember is I said thank you and I hugged him. I brought it to school; my friends and teacher congratulated me. They all wanted to hear what happened. It was just amazing.”
Watch the moment here:
Aaron Judge also talked about the moment as he said, “It’s a special moment. I was excited to meet Derek and the fan who caught it. A Blue Jays fan having that moment with a young Yankees fan, that’s a moment that has been seen around the world now. It speaks volumes to the Blue Jays fans they have here. It’s a cool little connection they’ve got.”
Lanzillotta opened up about the incident as he expressed, “Judge hit that ball right to us. It couldn’t have been more perfect. I went to catch the ball and it hit off my hand; hit off my buddy’s face. I don’t know why the camera didn’t catch that part. I’ve watched every angle possible. I picked it up and the rest is history, right? That was probably one of the most memorable moments of my life.”