SAN FRANCISCO — Aaron Judge took his first at-bat at Oracle Park on Friday night and was met with thunderous booing.
By the end of the night, he had perfectly played the villain role.
Judge, playing for the team he rooted for as a kid and who would go on to wear pinstripes as a free agent, lived up to expectations by smashing two home runs to lead the Yankees to a 6-2 victory over the Giants in front of a mostly excited crowd of 35,018 fans.
Judge gave the Yankees (40-19) a 3-1 lead with a three-run homer to left field in the third inning and then smashed a 426-foot homer to center field in the sixth inning to extend the lead to 4-1.
At least in the first game of the series, McCorvey-Cove escaped Judge’s attack.
Judge’s two home runs off Giants right-hander Jordan Hicks gave him 20 home runs this season, putting him ahead of the major league leader.
Fourteen of those hits came in May, when Judge woke up from a quiet April and started wreaking havoc on opposing pitchers.
He also became the first Yankee player to hit 14 home runs and 12 doubles in a single month, breaking a record shared by Lou Gehrig.
After Judge’s second home run of the night, Yankees fans in the stadium erupted in “MVP” chants, but the home crowd also booed.
Marcus Stroman made sure Judge’s recent exploits translated into a win, holding the Giants (29-29) in check with a sharp and efficient performance over 7 1/3 innings.
Stroman recorded an out in the eighth inning for the second time in three starts, lowering his ERA to 2.73.
Before the game, manager Aaron Boone, who recalled those “anxious” days leading up to Judge’s eventual re-signing with the Yankees in December 2022, wasn’t sure how the crowd would react to their captain.
“Most superstars always get some level of mixed reactions, and it’s the same when we go out,” Boone said, “so there’s definitely some of that, but he’s such a beloved face of the sport that it’s hard to dislike Aaron.”
The majority of Giants fans in attendance Friday night did not share the same sentiment about Judge, a Linden, California, native, missing out on a chance to return home.
The Yankees’ West Coast tour began in similar fashion last weekend in San Diego, where Juan Soto heard more boos than cheers in the stadium that was his home for a year and a half before he was traded to the Padres.
And, of course, Soto responded by hitting a home run to give the Yankees the game-winning hit.
The judge took it to a new level on Friday.
The Giants took the lead in the bottom of the second inning on a perfect pop fly by Stroman and a fielding error by Gleyber Torres.
Matt Chapman batted first and rocketed the ball high into no man’s land along the left field line for a single, then Patrick Bailey came up to bat and grounded out to Torres, who took a step to his left and reached out to watch the ball go under his glove.
The play was inexplicably ruled a single rather than an error, advancing the runners to the corners.
Jorge Soler then sent Chapman home with a sacrifice fly.
After Judge hit a home run in the sixth inning, the Yankees fought back to score two more runs.
Torres singled to end Hicks’ game, then Anthony Rizzo hit a double off the right-field wall off left-hander Taylor Rogers.
Both innings were scored on a first pitch passed to Austin Wells that flew to the backstop.
Catcher Patrick Bailey threw to Rogers at home plate, but it was too late for Torres to catch it, but the ball popped up and Rizzo sprinted from third base to home to make it 6-1.
