Yankees, fans discover that Aaron Judge indeed is human
The Yankees' Aaron Judge, right, runs as he hits into a inning-ending double play in the eighth inning of a game against the Boston Red Sox on Sunday in Boston. Credit: AP/Greg M. Cooper
BOSTON
The only thing more bizarre than the Yankees getting swept at Fenway Park this weekend was Aaron Judge being one of the primary culprits in his own team’s demise.
Yes, that Aaron Judge.
Watching the two-time MVP, who’s virtually guaranteed a third trophy at season’s end, flail away at a Red Sox pitching staff that had been a punchline until recently was hard to process. How could someone like Judge, the most dangerous hitter any of us have ever witnessed (non-PED division), be reduced to an easy out, as harmless as some overmatched Triple-A call-up?
Just typing that sentence feels ridiculous. And asking what’s wrong with Judge after three bad days in Boston — a stunning 1-for-12 performance that included nine strikeouts, capped by Sunday’s hat trick in the Yankees’ 2-0 loss — seems sort of silly, too. It’s like challenging da Vinci on his color choices for the Mona Lisa.
But there was Judge, appearing as human as the rest of us, whiffing three times against Sox starter Brayan Bello as another Fenway sellout crowd (36,475) roared louder with each subsequent failure. And when Judge came to the plate in the eighth inning with two on and an opportunity to flip the weekend script with one swing, he took a massive swing at a first-pitch 97-mph fastball at the top of the zone before grounding into a rally-killing double play on a slider way outside.
I know what you’re thinking. High-pressure series against a bitter rival. Big stage for mid-June. Fenway Park crackling with tension. Echoes of October, right?
Judge’s postseason issues are well-documented, and every Yankees-Red Sox clash is about as close to an October experience as we get at this time of year.
And what happened this weekend appeared to be a case of Judge carrying the weight of the Yankees’ offensive funk as a whole. It’s only natural that the guy who leads the planet in nearly every offensive category would feel obligated to do all of the heavy lifting by himself, and with the Yankees batting .158 (15-for-95) in the three-game series, with four total runs and four extra-base hits, there’s zero doubt that Judge was trying to pick up that slack. Even if nobody would cop to that simple explanation.
“Just had some swing and miss,” manager Aaron Boone said. “They pitched him tough, obviously. It’s baseball, man. It’s why guys don’t hit .450 with 900 homers. You’re gonna have a weekend where they execute and they get you.”
No argument here. Judge rolled into Fenway hitting .392 and tumbled all the way down to .378 by the series finish, but his 1.229 OPS still dwarfs the rest of the majors — Shohei Ohtani entered Sunday night second at 1.023 — and his 26 homers were tied with the Mariners’ Cal Raleigh for the top spot.
Earlier in the week, it was Boone who said Judge is “playing in a different league” after his 469-foot homer almost traveled completely out of KC’s Kauffman Stadium, and his hiccup in Boston probably was more about the market correction alluded to by his manager.
Just a case of bad timing, and Judge certainly didn’t look like himself, chasing pitches he usually resists. In the first inning, he whiffed on a shin-level cutter that was well off the plate. In the third, it was a four-seam fastball about waist-high, but again too far outside. In the sixth, it was a sinker that broke down and in, again not a strike.
“Got to swing at strikes,” Judge said. “That usually helps any hitter when you swing at strikes.”
So did Judge feel as if he was chasing too much?
“You guys were watching the game,” he said. “Yeah, definitely some pitches off the edge, or off the edge in, taking some hacks, trying to make something happen instead of taking your walk if they’re going to give it to you. Just kind of keep the line moving.”
That’s the predicament of being Judge. What are you supposed to do when the line has stopped dead, teammates are running into outs on the basepaths, and offense is as scarce as a good bagel on nearby Boylston Street?
For the entire weekend, the towering Judge was staring eye-to-eye with the Green Monster, barely a check-swing away for him, a half-barrel at best, and he cleared it only once, with Friday’s tying homer in the ninth inning of the eventual 2-1, 10-inning loss.
None of that should be viewed as an excuse. Judge is the captain, paid $360 million to put the Yankees on his broad shoulders when necessary. But he’s also not a robot, as much as he performs like a pinstriped Terminator. These glitches are going to happen.
“It’s hard to be perfect,” Boone said. “You’re going to have a game here or a series there where they pitch you tough and you struggle a little bit. That’s all part of it.”
This time Judge couldn’t be the superhero the Yankees needed him to be. They got broomed by the hated Red Sox by a differential of four runs over three games — a margin that Judge typically can make up in a matter of few innings.
He wasn’t the only one to blame, of course. Just the most visible.
“Move past it, learn from it and get ready for the next series,” he said.
Somebody is going to pay for Judge’s weekend frustration at Fenway. And with the Angels next up in the Bronx, starting Monday, we have a good idea who that’s going to be.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
