One Jeter trait hits home with Judge
TAMPA — A pattern is developing, the more we get to know Aaron Judge, when it comes to a mindset that resembles a Yankees legend with whom he never played a big league game.
Throughout a 20-year career that will land him in Cooperstown, Derek Jeter highlighted the smallest sliver of optimism even in the darkest baseball times. Jeter avoided negative vibes, which the game is loaded with, at every turn.
Now, as Judge begins his second full year in the big leagues after the Yankees took the Astros to Game 7 of the ALCS last fall, he is displaying Jeter’s signature trait.
Asked what part of last year’s postseason provided motivation during the winter, when he was recovering from left shoulder surgery, Judge chose the sights and sounds of a thunderous Yankee Stadium instead of his .188 average and 27 strikeouts in 48 postseason at-bats.
“I felt like Yankee Stadium was alive. I had never been a part of that. I have seen stuff like that on TV back in the ’90s, when Yankee Stadium was rocking, but this had a different feel,’’ Judge said Thursday after taking batting practice at George M. Steinbrenner Field. “The whole offseason I have been thinking about it. I can’t wait to be back in the Stadium and be in front of that crowd. It’s amazing. Home-field advantage really plays into it when you play in Yankee Stadium. You could feel it in your bones.”
After posting an AL-leading 51-30 home record during the regular season, the Yankees won six of seven postseason home games and used The Bronx to erase 0-2 deficits in the ALDS against the Indians and the Astros in the ALCS.
The Yankees had home- f i eld advantage in the wild-card game against the Twins, but because they didn’t win the AL East title, they didn’t have the same advantage in the next two rounds of the playoffs.
“We got to play our game and win games,” Judge said about securing more home October games with a divisional title. “That’s where it starts, it starts in here, doing the little things and making sure we are prepared for the long grind.”
After shaking off a brutal 44-game stretch from July 14 to Aug. 31, when Judge hit .179 with seven homers, 16 RBIs and a .690 OPS, the hulking outfielder responded by hitting .311 with 15 homers, 32 RBIs and a 1.352 OPS in the final 27 games of the season.
Yet, Judge went 9-for-48 (. 188) with four homers and 11 RBIs in 13 postseason tilts. However, the Stadium treated Judge well in October because he batted . 333 (7-for-21) with three homers and 10 RBIs in six games in The Bronx.
“When you get to the postseason, it’s all about winning,’’ said Judge, who helped turn around the ALDS by denying Francisco Lindor of a home run in the sixth inning of a 1-0 Yankees victory in Game 3 against the Indians, who could have swept the series with a victory.
It was the first of two straight wins in The Bronx and set the Yankees up for a third in Cleveland.
“Stats go out the window, what you do in the first half, second half, none of that matters,” Judge said. “It’s just about winning ballgames. If you go 0-for-4 and win, that is part of it. If you go 4-for-4 and win, that’s great, too. But it’s all about making sure you get that W.”
What Judge heard and what he saw from inside the Stadium can serve as an appetizer for the rest of the Yankees, who added NL MVP Giancarlo Stanton and are no longer the warm and fuzzy story they were a year ago.
“That’s what was great about getting that postseason taste. A lot of us understand that the season doesn’t end in September,’’ Judge said. “You just keep going. Just getting that taste of it is really going to go a long ways for this young team.”