With spotlight on Crews and Soto, Judge steals the show (updated)

They came to see Dylan Crews do big things in his major league debut. They left after seeing a mediocre night from the Nationals' top talent, three big hits from the Yankees' powerful lineup, and three devastating catches at the wall that ruined any chance of a win on one of the most highly anticipated nights in recent franchise history.

Gleyber Torres, Austin Wells and Jazz Chisholm Jr. each hit a home run, and Aaron Judge didn't hit a home run, but the major league's best home run hitter hit two potential bombs against the center field wall to delight the 32,812 fans on both sides, stealing the show in New York's 5-2 victory on a night that belonged neither to Crews nor to Juan Soto.

Crews, the Nats' first-round pick in last summer's draft, went 0-for-3 with a walk, a strikeout, a flyout and a groundout in his first career game. It was a rather uneventful night for the 22-year-old, whose biggest moment may have been a fourth-inning throw from right field that narrowly missed Anthony Volpe at bat.

“First of all, it was a pretty surreal moment playing against the Yankees and facing Judge and Soto for the first time,” he said. “And of course, it's a great feeling to play with my new team that I'm on now, the Nationals. I'm just going to come out tomorrow and do it all again.”

Crews batted second behind CJ Abrams and ahead of James Wood and only came to bat once with runners on base; in the sixth inning, he struck out with two runners on base and one out, failing to field a 3-2 fastball from Nestor Cortes.

“Those are great pitchers up there that will get you every now and then,” he said. “I think overall I saw the ball great today. And my approach was where I wanted it to be.”

The extra energy in the stadium was palpable all afternoon and into the evening, and only part of it had to do with Crews' debut. The arrival of the vaunted Yankees, and especially the return of Soto to Nationals Park, was enough to make this Monday night a major event on South Capitol Street, no matter who was in the home team's lineup.

The crowd cheered for Crews when his name was first called. And they cheered for Soto when he stepped to the plate in the first inning. The 25-year-old former World Series hero stepped out of the box to take off his helmet and thank the fans.

The Yankees, by the way, were already leading 1-0 when Soto started after Gleyber Torres opened the game with a home run against Mitchell Parker. Parker, facing the most fearsome top-four hitters he'll likely ever face in his life, showed nerves of steel by forcing Judge into a double play in the first inning and getting Torres to ground out with the bases loaded an inning later (a scenario that only occurred after the rookie left-hander botched a routine play that led to his latest fielding error).

“It's a problem I'm going to keep working on,” Parker said of his fourth error in just 11 major league pitching opportunities. “Just clear your mind when you're on the mound and deal with it the next day. Figure it out and hope it doesn't happen to you next time.”

All other things being equal, Parker held his own tonight. He allowed another run in the fourth inning on a leadoff double by Volpe and two subsequent flyouts. But that was about all he allowed. The problem: He needed 83 pitches to complete four innings, and with the heart of New York's lineup due to pitch in the fifth, manager Davey Martinez decided not to push his luck and instead turned to his bullpen.

“It's annoying not being able to go out there, not being able to get a few more innings,” Parker said. “But we try all year to limit the damage against a very good team.”

(Martinez did not hold his usual post-match press conference. According to a club spokesman, he was not feeling well.)

Tanner Rainey impressed, striking out Soto (who finished 0-for-4 with a walk), Judge and Giancarlo Stanton on four total pitches, but the right-hander didn't have nearly as much luck in his return for the sixth inning. Wells led off with a home run to right, and Volpe followed with a single to center that Jacob Young made an error on, then stole third base and scored on a sacrifice fly.

That put the Nationals behind 4-0, which honestly didn't feel fair considering how well they hit the ball against Cortes. In the first four innings alone, they hit four single balls at least 375 feet, but only managed one hit (a double by Andres Chaparro).

That's because the Yankees outfield made three spectacular plays to steal extra bases from the Nats. Alex Verdugo slammed into the left outfield wall in the second inning when he caught Keibert Ruiz's deep hit and landed in a heap on the ground, but ultimately stayed in the game. Judge leapt high to catch Jose Tena's 400-foot hit to center, a ball that seemed inches away from leaving the field. And Judge outdid himself in the bottom of the fourth inning.

Chaparro, who had already hit a double to right-center, slammed a pitch to left-center that everyone in the park seemed to think was lost. But Judge tracked it down, jumped and pulled the 380-foot ball back from the wall, then threw it all the way back to first base to surprise Wood and complete a double play that equaled all others in the history of the game.

“I thought we had a chance. It hung around just long enough,” Judge said. “I tried to go out there and do something. (Verdugo) set the tone by basically running through another wall. As a teammate, you have to go out there and bring that energy.”

“Very, very surprised,” Chaparro said of the robbery, relayed through interpreter Octavio Martinez. “Because I thought it was going to be a home run. And when he caught it, I just thought, 'Wow, that was a good catch.'”

Juan Yepez finally decided to take matters into his own hands, sending the ball 432 feet over the left bullpen field for a seventh-inning home run that no one could recover. And Young, of all people, also hit a home run in the eighth inning against reliever Mark Leiter Jr. But it was far too late to make much of a difference, other than saving the Nats from a shutout on a night that started so promisingly but still ended with a sincere appreciation of the moment from the newest major leaguer.

“I think it's finally sunk in,” Crews said. “When I first went out there, it was a pretty surreal moment. But I felt like a kid just going out there every day and playing. That's how I deal with it. It's a pretty great feeling.”