If you told me during the regular season that a team would intentionally walk Juan Soto to face Aaron Judge with the bases loaded, you'd think they were on crazy drugs.
Well, the Guardians did just that in a surprising 6-3 loss in Game 2 of the ALCS.
Manager Stephen Vogt then defended the judge's decision to intentionally walk Soto with one out and the bases loaded in the second inning with the Blues trailing 2-0.
“They were hitting the ball around the ballpark and we had to stop the game,” Vogt said. “In those situations, you want to hit a double play. You want to get two outs on one pitch. You want to find a way to get out of that inning, and Cade (Smith) did a great job with that.”
His hopes of running into a double play ball were not fulfilled, but Judge hit a sacrifice fly to extend the lead to 3-0, and beleaguered No. 4 batter Austin Wells struck out to end the inning.
Smith, a right-hander, was replaced in the starting pitcher by fellow right-hander Tanner Bibby, but Vogt gave him an intentional walk before his departure.
Although he hit his first home run of the postseason late in the game, Soto may continue to receive big walks until Judge starts to look like the MVP.
Judge is hitting just .167 with an OPS of .735 this postseason.
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“It's win or go home,” Judge said of Soto's intentional walk. “Every out, every inning counts. They're trying to get a few outs with double plays, but we managed to get a run.”
Soto went 1-for-3 on Tuesday and Judge went 1-for-3 with three RBIs.
The Yankees have taken a 2-0 series lead so far thanks to quick work by the Guardians, sending Clark Schmidt to the mound on Thursday and moving the series to Game 3 in Cleveland.
