During the regular season, Aaron Judge will play alongside franchise immortals Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio, Lou Gehrig and Yogi Berra. He's the only guy in a pinstripe suit with a chance to break into the Yankees Hall of Fame.
He's an eternal Yankee.
But come the postseason, the game's greatest natural offensive force since Mantle's heyday more than 60 years ago rivals the likes of Martin Maldonado, Clay Bellinger and Reggie Sanders.
This number seems more like an optical illusion than a reflection of reality. But after the team went 1-for-3, including an infield hit in the 8th inning, in a 4-2 LDS Game 2 loss to the Royals on Monday to level the series against the pair in Kansas City, Judge said the strikeout rate was Recorded one of the highest four. He is the most batters in postseason history to have played at least 200 at-bats and had a batting average of 33 percent or higher.
Judge has won 1 out of 7 in this series. He struck out in the first inning of Sunday's Game 1 with no outs on first and second base. In the first inning of Game 2, he struck out with no outs on first and second base. He had four strikeouts in nine at-bats. exterior.
The fate of the Yankees doesn't concern Judge alone, but he certainly knows the Yankees are earning a stripe-collecting ring. He is also aware of his responsibility.
“Well, I get mad every time I don't get my work done,” Judge said before the series began. “As a member of the team, I take great responsibility for that.
“If I don't win everything, I think it's my fault.”
The first sentence of Judge's Bible will refer to the American League home run record of 62 in 2022 and 58 home runs in a season in 2024. This will include the unknown actions that await this unique 32-year-old as he prepares to conquer the regular season in the future. Someone who is likely to get better by the time the season comes.
But Ted Williams' 5-for-25 at-bats (5 singles) in Boston's only World Series appearance in 1946, a seven-game loss to St. Louis, is always mentioned prominently in his stories. Just as he did, Judge would suffer the same fate if he did. You can't twist history to do it your way.
Of course we have time. But the workload increases because No. 99 has to pitch much better in the postseason than he did in the regular season. The judges protested, but it wasn't quite the same game and it was probably too much.
“The main thing is just go out there and try to do your job. The players are on base, so try to drive them in. If not, move them,” the center fielder said. I did. “We try to do what we’ve been doing all year.
“Really, it's not about putting pressure on anyone. It's the same game we've been playing all year.”
Of course, Derek Jeter still falls short of the pantheon, even with a franchise-record 3,465 hits, sixth most in major league history. But Jeter won five rings. For Judge, no moment matched Jeter's go-ahead home run against Shea in Game 4 of the 2000 Subway Series. There is no moment comparable to November's game-winning home run off Kim Byung-hyun in the 10th inning of the 2001 series against Arizona.
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There are few, if any, postseason moments for the Judges. A drop in the bucket. The ring display remains barren, at least when the Yankees were swept by the Astros in the 2022 ALCS, in part because Judge was 1-for-22 in the series.
Entering Game 2, Judge had a batting average of .206/.307/.451, an OPS of .758, 13 home runs, and 25 RBIs in 45 of the seven postseason series games.
In 18 games over the last 10 years, the game's standout hitter has hit .135/.207/.338 with a .545 OPS, five home runs and eight RBIs, with 28 strikeouts in 82 at-bats. , it became a mirror of fun.
By the way, in the first inning of Judge's Game 1, if he had been able to make a running catch on the warning track in left-center from Bobby Witt Jr.'s bat, he might have been able to avoid a run or two. You can create moments even in the field. Mantle made one save on Don Larsen's perfect game against Brooklyn in 1956.
Of course, the Yankees won the game and the series.
The Forever Yankees failed to produce a Forever Swing of the Bat in the postseason. He doesn't recreate Mantle's game-winning home run in the ninth inning off the Cardinals' Bernie Schultz in Game 3 of the 1964 series. This home run broke a tie with Babe for the most home runs in what was then known as the Fall Classic.
Of course, this is a small sample size, so the judges can change the story on any given at-bat. But time is of the essence, and it won't wait forever. Time may not wait until the end of the series.
A ring is needed to cross the threshold into franchise immortality. The judge knows that.
So is everyone else.
