Aaron Judge, Gleyber Torres and the rest of the Yankees' offense is walking at a record-breaking pace

When people think about Juan Soto and Aaron Judge, or about the Yankees offense as a whole, there’s generally one key aspect that gets noticed above all others.

Walks, right? It has to be the walks.

OK, not quite. For years, the Yankees, for better or worse, have been painted in broad brushstrokes — a top-heavy team that’s dependent on the long ball. In both stature and power, having Soto, Judge and Giancarlo Stanton in the lineup can often make opposing pitchers feel like the biggest and most important challenge is simply keeping them in the park.

But as it turns out, the Bronx Bombers are actually more like Bronx Ballers, and their sustained ability to work deep counts, tire out opposing pitchers and, yes, draw walks, has been a key component to an offense that went into Tuesday night’s ALCS Game 2 against the Guardians having gotten 34 bases on balls this postseason, tied for the most an MLB club has ever drawn in a five-game postseason span.

As they have all season, the Yankees simply don’t chase — a league-low 24.2% this season, according to Baseball Savant — and because of those ingrained habits, they went into the day with a playoff-high .354 on-base percentage. Judge and Gleyber Torres (six walks apiece) have led the way, and one could argue that, as the leadoff hitter, Torres’ contributions have been especially important.

“Sometimes, I’m really going aggressive . . . but if I don’t feel really confident on a couple pitches, [I] just wait to see more pitches [and] try to fight every at-bat,” Torres said Tuesday. “That way Soto, Judge, all the guys can see the pitches better . . . If [that can tell them] that a pitch is moving more south or west or things like that, [that’s helpful]. That’s the mentality we have right now. Everybody’s on the same page. We have a lot of conversations every evening to get better. I think everybody is doing a great job.”

It’s also in stark contrast to the issues that felled the 2022 Yankees when they were swept by the Astros in the ALCS. Going up against some mighty pitching, and with a less-balanced roster, the Yankees struck out an eye-opening 38.5% of the time in that series, with a meager .232 on-base percentage.

That team, which was playing without injured contact hitters DJ LeMahieu and Andrew Benintendi, and contact-hitter-that-one-season Matt Carpenter, “were kind of limping into that series in a lot of ways,” Aaron Boone said. “We’re better now. We’re in a better place. We have more balance. So I just think this is apples and oranges.”

Boone is right to say that it’s pretty much been their approach for a while now: Their 672 walks were first in baseball this year and their .335 on-base percentage was first in the American League.

They benefit from Soto and Judge striking against the “free-swinging slugger” stereotype. And against the Guardians, whose starters pitched some of the fewest innings of any rotation in the big leagues, that helps: The quicker you can tire out the dominant back end of their bullpen, the better the Yankees chances in a seven-game series.

“We talked about this before the series started, these guys work the count,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “They don’t chase a whole lot. I think, if I take something away from [Game 1], we just need to attack the zone better, and we didn’t [Monday]. They made us work.”

That becomes more important in the playoffs, when you’re consistently facing better pitchers than you generally would in the regular season, Torres said.

“I think egos and personal numbers stay in the regular season,” Torres said. “We had many conversations before the first game against Kansas City [in the ALDS], and we tried to be more patient than ever . . . [With better pitching] you’re not always going to hit a homer. I think the little things are really important for us. A walk, maybe a bunt is huge for winning games.”

The Bronx Bombers. The Bronx Ballers. Even the Bronx Bunters. It doesn’t matter to this lineup.

“That’s what good teams do,” Soto said. “It’s not all about one guy. It’s about the whole lineup. We put pressure on those guys, taking pitches and getting our walks, getting guys over, bases loaded, making those guys make wild pitches and everything. So I think at the end of the day, it’s a team effort.”

By Laura Albanese

laura.albanese@newsday.com@AlbaneseLaura

Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.