Yankees' team effort gets struggling Aaron Judge off the hook in ALDS Game 3

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – They may get by the Royals, but it’s hard to imagine the Yankees winning the World Series if the regular season version of Aaron Judge doesn’t show up at some point in the postseason.

Or maybe they can keep winning without much help from probable AL MVP as they did in Wednesday’s critical 3-2 victory over the Royals in Game 3 of the ALDS at Kauffman Stadium.

Judge went 0-for-4 with a walk and is 1-for-11 in the series. His career postseason batting average is down to .203.

But fear not, Yankees fans: Alex Verdugo said Judge is thisclose to breaking out and being his usual prodigious slugger self.

“He probably just missed three balls by the smidge of a hair,” Verdugo said.

In Game 3, the Yankees used a village to beat the Royals. They can join the Mets in advancing to their league’s Championship Series if they win with Gerrit Cole on the mound on Thursday night.

“At the end of the day, it's all about the whole team,” said Juan Soto, who went 0-for-2 with two walks and a sacrifice fly. “We can't lean on one player, that he's going to do everything for us to take us all the way. We’ve got to do it as a team.”

Standout performers abounded for the Yankees in their conquest of the plucky (but don’t call us “lucky”) Royals before a hostile sellout crowd which booed Jazz Chisholm Jr. all night after the Yankees’ third baseman said Kansas City was “lucky” to have won Game 2.

Foremost was Giancarlo Stanton, who went 3-for-5 with an RBI double and the tie-breaking home run in the eighth inning.

Stanton also – shockingly – stole his first base since 2020. It didn’t lead to a run, but it probably made most Yankees fans fall off their couches in disbelief.

Clarke Schmidt, in his first postseason start, threw shutout ball for four innings before giving up two runs in the fifth.

Clay Holmes, the deposed closer, continued his incredible string of postseason success by not allowing a run in 1 1/3 innings. Holmes is unscored upon in 12 postseason innings.

Winning pitcher Tommy Kahnle threw 1 1/3 scoreless innings, too, and the impenetrable Luke Weaver closed it out with a five-out save.

Verdugo had a key sacrifice bunt that led to a run in the fifth.

Anthony Volpe, looking very comfortable in his first postseason, went 1-for-2 with two walks and made the defensive play of the game on a leaping catch of a floater off the bat of Vinnie Pasquantino behind second base with a man on first in the eighth.

“It was weird,” Volpe said. “I thought he hit it harder, so I initially went to go cover to get the cutoff there. Then I realized how soft he hit it. I knew I had a chance.”

Judge contributed fine defense in center and little else. He probably should have had a walk in the seventh, when he was punched out by first-base umpire Mark Carlson on a dubious checked-swing call.

In his other at-bats, Judge lined out to short (114.4 miles per hour), hit a ball to the warning track in left, left two men on with a fly out to center, and walked.

Progress?

“I didn’t get any hits, so it’s not feeling too good,” he said. “But we’re right where we need to be.”

According to MLB.com, Judge’s personal hitting guru Richard Schenck traveled to Kansas City for a fix-it session.

Hey, the Yankees should welcome whatever gets Judge to the other side of his current malaise.

There comes a time when the label of “postseason flop” really sticks to a player. Especially a great player.

It happened to Barry Bonds before 2002, when he hit eight home runs in the postseason and .471 in the World Series for the Giants.

It happened to Alex Rodriguez before 2009, when he hit .365 with six home runs and 18 RBIs as the Yankees won the World Series.

It is happening now to Judge.

After the Yankees’ 6-5 victory in Game 1, baseball Hall of Famer and Red Sox postseason hero David Ortiz, on a FS1’s postgame show panel with A-Rod and Derek Jeter, said he thought Judge was expanding the strike zone in the playoffs.

“I resonate with that,” Rodriguez said, “because before ’09, I was doing exactly the same thing . . . But in ’09, I changed everything, and I said, ‘You must come to me. I’m going to trust Derek, I’m going to trust (Johnny) Damon, and especially (Hideki) Matsui, who was hitting behind me.’ I think that’s exactly what Aaron Judge can do.”

It’s true that Judge doesn’t necessarily have to carry the Yankees on his broad shoulders. But wouldn’t it be easier for them if he did?

By Anthony Rieber

anthony.rieber@newsday.comAnthonyRieber

Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.