LOS ANGELES – As Juan Soto lashed a single into right field leading off the ninth inning, the visitor’s dugout at Dodger Stadium erupted in a spasm of exultant hand gestures and merriment.
Sure, the New York Yankees had been held to just two hits from Soto by the Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday night, but they were trailing by three runs in Game 2 of this World Series and suddenly, their most dangerous man, Giancarlo Stanton, loomed in the on-deck circle as the tying run.
And then Aaron Judge stepped into the batter’s box.
On almost any day this season, that would be cause for joy for the Yankees. But after Judge waited nearly a decade to reach the World Series, he is in grave danger of exiting in far quicker fashion, thanks in no small part to his own failings.
Facing Dodgers closer Blake Treinen, Judge flailed at the first pitch, a nasty sweeper that ducked out of the strike zone. Looked at the second pitch – a slider that landed on the outside corner. And then, a pitch later, lunged once again at a sweeper way outside and beneath the strike zone.
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It was Judge’s sixth strikeout in nine at-bats this World Series, his 19th in 40 at-bats this postseason – and it only looked all the worse when the Yankees got the tying and winning runs on base but couldn’t push them home in a 4-2 loss.
They packed up their visiting clubhouse at Dodger Stadium for the long flight home, hoping for a balm from Yankee Stadium, where Game 3 will commence Monday night. Yet a sign of life – a good plate appearance, a hard-hit ball, heck, how about a home run? – from their captain and presumed American League MVP would go so much further.
And Judge, the 6-7 force who hit 58 home runs and posted a 1.159 OPS this year, knows that better than anyone.
“I definitely gotta step up. I gotta do my job,” Judge said late Saturday night as the Yankees prepared to depart Los Angeles. “Guys around me are doing their job, getting on base.
“And I’m failing them, not backing them up.”
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Two games does not a sample make, but October cannot wait for such technicalities. Judge is now 1 for 9 in this World Series, but it is the six strikeouts that are far more disconcerting.
They suggest a slugger discombobulated, out of whack mechanically and at least a little bit mentally. To a man, the Yankees say Judge is not pressing.
Yet Judge himself dusts off the time-worn adage that he must take what he is given, and if that are a few walks, so be it. Whether that defines pressing depends on your perspective.
“He’s got time to help us win some games,” says Stanton.
But how – especially when Judge is chasing almost anything?
The 6-6 Stanton cups his hands together – almost in a heart – to demonstrate.
“You gotta make your zone,” he says, “this big. When that happens, you feel like your plate is this big and you have to compress it.
“He’s going to help us win some games here.”
Indeed, Judge is somehow remaining sanguine, even as he realizes his failings are hurting the team. He says he they are getting close to a fix.
That sounds great in April, when Judge struggled through a rough month before going on, essentially, a five-month tear to drive the Yankees to the AL East championship.
How does one salvage his mechanics, his mind, when his team is two losses away from elimination?
“It’s all about one at-bat,” says Soto, who homered and has three hits in two games. “I know it’s tough but when you’re a hitter like him – and he’s one of the greatest – it’s only going to take one at-bat. One at-bat for him to be locked in and be on it.
“Whenever he hits that ball or whenever he takes that pitch, it’s going to get him going. Some guys, it takes a little while. But when you have a guy like that who’s so good, it’s only going to take one at-bat to get him going.”
And when Judge is neutralized, it serves to cut the Yankees as a whole down to size.
A club that led the major leagues in home runs and the AL in runs scored was held to four hits in Game 2 – and just Soto’s towering third-inning home run through eight innings.
After Soto touched home plate, tying the game 1-1, Judge was the next batter, and sent a harmless fly ball to right field, where Mookie Betts gathered it in – setting off a string of 11 straight batters retired by Los Angeles Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
Yamamoto pitched into the seventh inning, the second excellent start this series after Jack Flaherty gave up only Stanton’s two-run homer in Game 1. The Dodgers are pitching them carefully and executing exquisitely, and it is impacting the Yankees’ greatest hitter.
“Sometimes, you want to make things happen rather than let the game come to you,” says Judge. “You see Gleyber on base, Juan get on base and you want to make things happen. But if you don’t get a pitch in the zone, you have to just take your walks and set it up for Big G.
“Plain and simple, I gotta start swinging at strikes.”
He knew that in April, when he batted .207 with a .754 OPS, and recouped all his numbers by season’s end.
“It’s all the same,” says Judge. “You just run out of games when it’s here.”
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