Frustrated Aaron Judge slammed his helmet in the dugout after missing a golden chance at 62

It’s difficult to imagine the pressure that Aaron Judge is dealing with in his pursuit of home run No. 62. And through it all, Judge hasn’t shown much visual frustration — even as opposing pitching staffs generally pitched around him.

But Tuesday’s Game 1 doubleheader against the Texas Rangers was a different story.

The Rangers — having already been eliminated from postseason contention — said ahead of the series that they would pitch to Judge. And through two games, they had been true to that word. Yet, Judge’s homer drought appears to no longer be from a lack of pitches to hit. As we saw in the fifth inning on Tuesday, Judge is just missing pitches he’d normally send into the seats.

Facing Rangers pitcher Jon Gray, Judge had a prime opportunity to break Roger Maris’ American League home run record on a slider that hung over the center of the plate. Judge, though, ended up popping out to first base. And as he made his way into the dugout, we saw a rare display of frustration from the Yankees slugger when he slammed his helmet.

Judge knew that was a pitch he should have crushed. His frustration was a sign of a player who is pressing and changing his approach. He’ll have two more games to get No. 62 — assuming it doesn’t happen in Game 1 — but it doesn’t bode well for him if he’s missing hangers over the middle of the plate.

MLB fans also had thoughts on Judge’s reaction in the dugout.