LOS ANGELES — Beads of perspiration glistened down Aaron Judge’s forehead as the Yankees captain faced the music.
In the Yankees’ locker room after New York’s 4-2 loss to the Dodgers in Game 2 of the World Series, Judge stood trial. An imposing crescent of cameras, microphones and outstretched phones gave the struggling slugger little breathing room in Dodger Stadium’s comically cramped visitors clubhouse. Perhaps it was the glare from the blinding TV lights or the heat of too many people in too small a space, but the typically cool character was sweating it out.
Otherwise, Judge cut a calm figure. Speaking in his trademark low register, the Yankee talisman took full responsibility for the woeful start to his first World Series.
“I definitely gotta step up. I gotta do my job,” he said. “Guys around me are doing their job, getting on base. You know, and I’m failing ’em, [not] backing ’em up.”
Through two games in this Fall Classic, the presumptive American League MVP is 1-for-9 with six strikeouts. He does not have a hit with runners on base. He is chasing at nearly twice his regular-season rate. The Dodgers have noticed and are attacking him with an abnormally high percentage of breaking pitches outside the zone.
Quite simply, the game’s most dominant offensive force, who just delivered the best offensive season in two decades, looks uncharacteristically uncomfortable.
In Saturday’s Game 2, Judge went 0-for-4 with three punchouts, becoming just the sixth player to strike out three times in back-to-back World Series games. Judge is only the second player in MLB history to accomplish that unsavory feat in the first two World Series games of a career, joining fellow Yankee Alex Rodríguez.
The others:
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2022: J.T. Realmuto (Phillies) — Games 1 and 2
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2017: Cody Bellinger (Dodgers) — G6/G7
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2016: Mike Napoli (Cleveland) — G6/G7
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2009: Ryan Howard (Phillies) — G2/G3
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2009: Alex Rodríguez (Yankees) — G1/G2
Rodríguez, perhaps poetically, is the only player on that list whose team won the Fall Classic.
It’s worth noting that Judge is not the only Yankee whose struggles have contributed to this 2-0 series deficit. The bottom three hitters in New York’s lineup — Anthony Volpe, Austin Wells and Alex Verdugo — are a paltry 1-for-24. Wells, the mustachioed catcher likely to finish top-three in American League Rookie of the Year voting, has looked particularly overmatched. All three of his at-bats in Game 2 — a pair of easy groundouts and a strikeout — ended on fastballs in the heart of the zone.
But to criticize the last three hitters in the Yankees’ lineup misses the point. Judge is, has been and will be the face, heart and soul of this franchise. Criticism comes with the job. Boos, if the strikeouts continue, will rain down upon him in the Bronx.
“The narrative is whatever is made of it,” first baseman Anthony Rizzo, one of Judge’s closest friends on the team, told reporters after the game. “But he’s a brick wall. He knows how to handle all this stuff. These times right now define him even more.
“He’s the best person I’ve ever been around. Good things will come, for sure.”
These Yankees stampeded through the American League in this postseason despite a lack of production from their captain. Judge, whose 58 home runs this year topped MLB, has gone yard just twice this month. Contributions from other stars such as Juan Soto and ALCS MVP Giancarlo Stanton kept the Yankees moving forward while Judge continued searching for his form.
A similar dynamic played out earlier this season, as Judge slogged through April, finishing the month with a relatively paltry .754 OPS and only six home runs. Once the calendar turned, though, Judge caught fire. And when the dust settled, his subpar April was but an odd footnote in a historically great campaign. Water found its level. The small-sample-size mirage faded into irrelevance.
Now, in the heat of a World Series, the Yankees cannot afford to wait.
Of this, Judge is well aware.
Unsurprisingly, the stoic slugger did not offer any glimpses of panic during his postgame remarks. His teammates, understandably, still believe in their leader. Judge is too talented to go this cold for this long. And while toeing the line between urgency and mania is Judge’s greatness, as both a hitter and a leader, fundamentally it rests on his unshakable faith in the long game. That has been both his and this club’s mantra all season.
But never has that faith been tested in a moment this trying. The lights are brighter here, stronger now, beneath the World Series spotlight. Judge’s words do not indicate a man overwhelmed by the moment. His performance thus far, however, has told a different story.
He is running out of time to write a new chapter.
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