Aaron Judge Reacts to Yankees Return, Standing Ovation After 3-Month Injury Absence

New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge told reporters that it "felt great" to make his return to the team during a 5-3 win over the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday.

Judge went 0-for-3 with a pair of strikeouts in the contest.

He was replaced by Heliot Ramos after the sixth inning, as Yankees manager Aaron Boone chose to be cautious with Judge's playing time after he missed over three months due to a rib injury .

"I feel great, I played half a game so I don't know what to say about that," Judge said during his press conference.

"I respect Boonie so whatever he says I'm gonna do, but not happy about it," he added. "But, that's where my guy [Heliot] Ramos came in and picked me up and hit a nice little three-run homer there to put the game out so we can be comfortable going into the last inning. But yeah, not too happy about it."

Ramos hit a three-run home run for New York in the bottom of the eighth inning.

As for Judge, he also gave his thoughts on returning to game shape while simultaneously suiting up for the Bronx Bombers down the stretch of the regular season.

"I get paid to do this, so I gotta go do it," Judge explained. "That's the end of it. I get paid to go out there and give my best to the New York Yankees and these fans. So, you get paid to win games so you gotta keep going out there and winning games."

The three-time American League MVP discussed his recovery process as well, revealing that he wanted to come back months earlier than he eventually did.

"I wanted to come back a couple months ago, but I'm not a trainer, so I gotta check whatever boxes they got," Judge told reporters. "A box that they wanted me to check was live hitting so I said, 'Perfect, we'll do that on the off day so I can play.'"

Judge also reacted to the standing ovation that he received from the crowd at Yankee Stadium in the bottom of the first inning.

"It was great," he said. "It reminded me a little bit of in '22, going for 62. They were all on their feet, but it was kind of quiet as he was pitching. I didn't like that that much. But standing 'O,' going up there was great. That's why they're the best fans in the world, so I was just trying to put a show on for them and come out with a win."

The Yankees improved to 82-62 with the victory, clinching their 34th consecutive season with a winning record.

"We're the Yankees, we're gonna win," Judge told reporters. "That's a great streak but everybody in this room is worried about championships."

New York holds the top AL Wild Card spot and sits four games back from the Tampa Bay Rays for the AL East lead with 18 regular-season contests remaining.