Bartolo Colon Briefly Humbles A Younger, Larger Foe

Despite posting an 8.14 ERA in 13 games for Atlanta this season before being cut, Bartolo Colon got himself a second chance with the Minnesota Twins. He made his first start for the 10th team in his major-league career Tuesday night against the Yankees.

Ideally, an aged and weakened Colon would be the perfect guy for Aaron Judge to face right now. Judge came into the game only 1-for-21 since the All-Star break, looking to regain his first-half form. But the rookie’s opening at-bat against Colon didn’t bring any relief. The pitcher—19 years his senior— caught Judge looking with a pretty nasty two-seamer.

That pitch was part of a 1-2-3 first inning for Colon, but he quickly showed that the early magic was too good to be true. Judge singled his next time up, and Colon exited with four earned runs after four innings and change, somehow raising his already massive ERA. He had three total strikeouts on the outing, even if getting Aaron Judge while being 44 years old should count as five.