Harrison Bader-Aaron Judge misplay proves costly for Yankees
New York Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge (99) and New York Yankees center fielder Harrison Bader (22) cannot get the ball hit by Houston Astros catcher Christian Vazquez (9) in the 2nd inning in game 3 of the ALCS at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx on Oct 22, 2022 Credit: Newsday/Thomas A. Ferrara
A two-out, none-on, nothing-special fly ball to right-centerfield in the second inning proved to be a critical moment in the Yankees’ 5-0 loss to the Astros in Game 3 of the ALCS on Saturday.
Centerfielder Harrison Bader and rightfielder Aaron Judge converged on the ball. Either could have caught the routine fly hit by Christian Vazquez, but distracted by Judge’s presence, Bader dropped it. That helped Houston create two unearned runs against Gerrit Cole and a 2-0 hole the Yankees never escaped from.
Bader blamed the loud crowd, which prevented him and Judge from hearing each call off the other, and the unfortunate placement of the ball, directly between them. Judge blamed himself.
“That’s just what happens when you got two guys on defense who go really hard every time the ball is hit in their vicinity,” Bader said. “It was placed perfectly in between us. It’s a loud atmosphere — fans want to win, they’re cheering. It was just placed perfectly. Guys were calling it to the very end. We both got a little spooked. That’s just the nature of the game. It’s unfortunate that it happened, but it happens.”
Judge said: “We’re both going for it, both calling for it, and at the last second I hear him and am trying to get out of the way. I definitely messed him up on that play. I gotta take responsibility for that. He’s the centerfielder. When he calls it, I gotta drop and get out of the way. I just couldn’t move quick enough. I don’t think the noise was really too much of a factor.”
That sequence zapped much of the energy from the Bronx crowd of 47,569 and effectively ended the game, considering the way the Yankees hit (or didn’t hit). So now they face a legitimate must-win scenario in Game 4 on Sunday night. Down 3-0 in the best-of-seven series, they have to beat the Astros four times in a row to advance to the World Series.
For Bader, a Gold Glover acquired from St. Louis for Jordan Montgomery specifically to bolster the Yankees’ outfield situation in September and October, a degree of difficulty on the key play stemmed from the mere presence of Judge, a 6-7, 282-pound hulk of a human who was bearing down on him. At the last moment, Judge deferred, withdrawing his glove. The ball went off the heel of Bader’s glove and fell to the ground, and he was charged with an error.
“He’s, like, 9 feet tall. You don’t want to get anybody hurt. You go really hard, but you don’t want to get anybody hurt,” Bader said.
Bader chased the ball down and threw it back to the infield. The play seemed so easy that Vazquez, assuming he had made an out to end the inning, already was jogging back to the dugout. He was halfway between first base and the mound — way out of the baseline — when he realized he was safe. He scrambled back to the base, bringing No. 9 hitter Chas McCormick to the plate.
McCormick sent a line drive just hard enough and just high enough to hit the top of the short porch in rightfield and skip into the stands for a two-run homer.
“I would probably count it as one of the mistakes of the evening,” said Cole, who called the Bader/Judge misplay “unfortunate.” “It was a couple inches over the plate more than we wanted, and the bounce went his way. It’s a pitch I’d rather do over.”
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
