Royals' Jakob Junis addresses 'crazy' tweets from Yankees fans after injuring Aaron Judge

Scott Gleeson | USA TODAY

Kansas City Royals pitcher Jakob Junis received an onslaught of threats and hateful rhetoric over social media shortly after he unintentionally hit Yankees superstar Aaron Judge in the right arm early in the Yankees' 7-2 win on Thursday.

Junis' 93 mph wild-pitch fastball ultimately led to a fractured right wrist for Judge. It also led to some furious Yankees fans, who couldn't help but target Junis on Twitter. Some tweets read, "drop dead" while another read, "Good luck making it out of the Bronx alive."

One post even threatened Junis' family.

"Oh, man. I got a bunch of them," Junis told The Athletic on Friday of the angry tweets. "I wasn’t expecting it. But once it started happening, I was like: ‘Man, this is kind of crazy how many people are messaging me.’ But it is what it is and hopefully it will blow over.

"I think a lot of people took it the wrong way. They think that I hit him on purpose, which was absolutely not the case. So, I think they were very upset, thinking that I did it intentionally. But it’s part of it, I guess."

Aaron Judge could be out 3 weeks after getting hit by this pitch: pic.twitter.com/rjeguAhgew — ESPN (@espn) July 27, 2018

Junis, who quickly turned his Twitter account on private in the aftermath, said part of why he didn't offer a public apology to Judge right away was because he didn't realize the injury was that severe. Judge stayed in the game on Thursday and even got an infield base hit before leaving in the fourth inning.

“It sucks,” Junis said later Friday of the injury. “I’m sorry about that.”

Judge is expected to miss three weeks to treat the injury. He's wearing a soft cast and is not expected to have surgery. "It could have been a lot worse," Judge told reporters.