Judge-ment Day: Yankees slugger Aaron Judge must continue clutch play.
Yankees slugger delivers early punch vs. Indians, and now needs to keep punching for Bombers to move on
If this is finally the Yankees’ time to win another World Series, if they’re finally ready to own October again, it has to be Aaron Judge’s time. He only had one hit against the Indians, but it was some hit, on the first pitch he saw from Shane Bieber, top of the first and top of the postseason on Tuesday night. Judge hit it out of Progressive Field and the Yankees were ahead 2-0, just like that. He is, in all ways, still the big Yankee, even if others did more than he did in the wild card series we just saw
He was the one who set the tone. It was the 9th postseason home run of his career, and it was like one of those old Mike Tyson prizefights, when the bell would ring and he would walk across the ring and rock his opponent with the first punch he threw. Judge threw that kind of punch against the Indians. And reminded you that even with Gerrit Cole on the team now, even with Giancarlo Stanton hitting more home runs than Judge did against the Indians and Luke Voit becoming the Yankees top home run guy in the short season, Judge is still what we thought he was going to be when he went for 52 homers three years ago:
Face of the Yankees.
DJ LeMahieu, whose real position is baseball player, just had the best season of any Yankee second baseman since a Yankee legend named Tony Lazzeri hit .354 and had 18 homers and 106 RBI back in 1929. Cole pitched and won the kind of game that he was paid over $300 million to win, whether it was a Game 1 or Game 5 or Game 7. Aroldis Chapman, coming into the 8th inning of Game 2, was the closer he was brought back to be when he got the last six outs of that close-out game, striking out 4.
And Gio Urshela, another of the replacements who came over the hill for Brian Cashman a year ago, started as great a big-moment double-play as any Yankee fan has ever seen from an infielder, diving and then making the throw to second while sitting in the dirt to end the bottom of the 8th of Game 2 with the Indians only leading 9-8.
But there is an old expression about only getting one chance to making a first impression and Judge had already done that the night before, against Bieber, the Triple Crown winner with the best earned run average and most wins and most strikeouts this season. It was as if he announced that he was back and so was the Yankee team we had seen back at the beginning of the 60 games.
This is one of the things All Rise Judge said about the home run when it was over Tuesday night:
“It’s a special moment but I just want to go out there and try to set the tone. I know DJ was gonna get on for me and I’m just wanting to, you know, if I got a mistake, you know, don’t miss it. Just kind of set the tone for the team of, we’re going to do this postseason.”
Everybody knows what the Rays did to the Yankees during the regular season, which means they did everything except throw them down a flight of stairs. Everybody knows what a tough out the Rays are, and how they are clearly not afraid of the Yankees. Everybody knows how Kevin Cash, one of the best managers in baseball, responded after Chapman threw a 100 mph fastball up in Mike Brosseau’s face and got himself good and suspended for that. Afterward Cash famously said that he had a stable full of guys who could throw 98 on his team. Somebody even had stable T-shirts made up for the Rays.
The Rays ended up winning the season series 8-2, and maybe form will hold in the division series that is about to begin, and they will roll the Yankees again with all their fine situational hitters and team defense that is a lot better than the team defense the Yankees play and, well, a stable full of guys, especially out of the bullpen, who can throw it 98.
But there was a time, and another October, when the Mets came into a National League Series against the Dodgers having won 10 of 11 from the Dodgers during the regular season. The Dodgers beat the Mets in seven games and ended up winning the World Series that year, 1988. It is, by the way, the last Series the Dodgers have won.
A lot has to happen for the Yankees to beat this Rays team, this season. But more than anything, and in light of everything LeMahieu and Voit in particular did, mightily, during the regular season, Judge’s presence in the lineup changes everything, for everybody, including Stanton, who might out-homer Judge for as long as the Yankees are playing baseball this month.
Of course Judge’s circumstances and the Yankees’ circumstances were far different than they were in the 2000 World Series when the Yankees were at old Shea Stadium trying to close out the Mets. That swing from Judge came in the first inning of a wild card series that never existed before this year. But the home run he hit felt a little bit like the punch that Derek Jeter threw at the Mets with his top-of-the-first home run that night 20 years ago.
The Yankees have only won one World Series since. Now they will try to win it all a long way from 161st Street. We all know that Judge missed 60 games last season and 50 the year before, more than Mike Trout has ever missed in one season of his career. Judge played less than half (28 total) of the Yankees’ games in the short season.
But he is back. The great Mickey Mantle only got to play World Series games in October. One round of postseason for him, not the four teams you have to beat to win this time. Mickey ended up hitting 18 home runs in his 65 postseason games. Judge has played 29 so far, and hit those nine homers. It puts him on a Mantle pace. Mickey always showed up in October. Judge has to do the same.