Aaron Judge believes the New York Yankees went a little bit overboard in their preparation for baseball’s new Automated Ball-Strike System.

Manager Aaron Boone admits he is a little “anal” about it all.

“We had too many meetings about it in my opinion,” said Judge, the two-time reigning AL MVP.

Yet Judge’s timely, spot-on challenge during the sixth inning of a 3-0 victory Friday night against San Francisco certainly paid off. He homered for the first time this season five pitches later with a two-run, 405-foot drive to left field after an 0-for-7 start to 2026 that included going 0 for 5 with four strikeouts in the opener.

Paul Goldschmidt scored on the home run.

Judge challenged what originally had been ruled strike two by plate umpire Chad Fairchild on an 86.1 mph slider from Robbie Ray in the sixth inning and had it overturned to a ball by the so-called robot umpire.

“I thought the call was going to stand so it was a close one there,” Judge said. “You get in a better count but I still have a job to do, especially with Goldy out there on second base to drive him in.”

New York was 2 for 3 in challenge opportunities through the first two games of the series, while the Giants were 1 for 2. Then a ball by San Francisco starter Tyler Mahle to Jazz Chisholm Jr. in the second was challenged by Giants catcher Patrick Bailey, and the call was overturned to a called third strike.

“I was kind of obsessive over it, so I wanted to talk about it a lot,” Boone said Saturday. “I was going up to individuals almost routinely after every one, ‘Hey, I really liked that one,’ why, ‘I hated that one,’ why. At the end of spring I pulled up probably eight to 10 examples not only our games but some other games and talked through them, just trying to get our guys to inherently understand instinctively, in-the-moment situations and also whenever we can, which is easier said than done, is stripping the emotion out of it, which is going to happen at some point.”

New York’s José Caballero lost the first challenge of the major league season during a season-opening 7-0 win over the Giants on Wednesday.

RIGHT BACK AT YOU

Toronto Blue Jays left-hander Mason Fluharty left Saturday’s game against the Athletics in the seventh inning after being struck on the right leg by consecutive infield singles.

Fluharty replaced Braydon Fisher to begin the inning and gave up a leadoff single to Jeff McNeil that bounced in front of the mound and struck the Toronto reliever above the right knee.

Manager John Schneider and a trainer came out to check on the 24-year-old Fluharty, who stayed in to face Max Muncy. Three pitches later, Muncy’s bouncing comebacker hit Fluharty on the inside of the right knee, knocking him to the ground.

Schneider and the trainer came out again and Fluharty eventually limped off while being supported by slugger Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and head athletic trainer Jose Ministral.

Left-hander Brendon Little came on for Fluharty, who went 5-2 with a 4.44 ERA in 55 games as a rookie last season.

Both hits off Fluharty led to runs. McNeil scored on an infield single and Muncy came home on a grand slam by Shea Langeliers.