DOING IT ALL
Judge amazes with his bat and glove
BRETT Gardner was hit by a pitch with two outs in the fourth inning and instantly a full house at Yankee Stadium picked up on the implication. Bases loaded. Aaron Judge coming up.
The 49,373 stood and cheered, trying to will magic here. In the top of the inning, when the Yankee lead was still just 3-0, Judge had crashed into the wall, shoulder and face smashing hard, to rob Yulieski Gurriel of extra bases, rising off the grass with ball in glove and chants of “MVP, MVP” swarming upon him.
“He’ll go through a wall for you,” Todd Frazier said. “That’s all you can ask for of a teammate.”
The Yankees had lost a couple of 2-1 games in Houston and there were many reasons for that. But significantly only one of the two players likely to win the AL MVP continued to excel this postseason — Astros dynamo Jose Altuve.
The Yanks, though, were now back in The Bronx, where they and Judge so regularly conjure their best work. They had the AL’s best home record and are 4-0 in the playoffs — winning three elimination games and now this, an 8-1 decision Monday night, when down two-games-to-none in the ALCS.
As if to emphasize the home-field edge — or homer-field edge — Frazier hit a prototype short-porch, three-run shot in the second inning in which he was fooled and defensively flicked the ball into the right-field seats.
Take your pick how that ball cleared the fence: 1) Mystique. 2) Aura. 3) A juiced ball.
As vital as Frazier’s homer was there is something about Judge thriving that ener- gizes this Yankee group. The spark to this surprise season, after all, was Judge’s shocking emergence in April from guy who barely won the right-field job to face of the game.
In these playoffs, however, the Yanks have frequently hungered for runs and Judge has been central to the shortcomings.
But here with a 4-0 lead and CC Sabathia excelling once more in October, the crowd sensed the potential for a kill shot that would pretty much put Game 3 away and scream that the Yankees were back in this ALCS, not going away without a fight.
Will Harris, on his second pitch after replacing starter Charlie Morton, bounced a run-scoring wild pitch. No more chance for a grand slam. On his fifth offering, Harris tried to go up and in with a 93-mph cutter and Judge had advised himself to shun the curveball and look up for the cutter. He hit it on a line to left, 103 mph, hard enough to carry into the first few rows, bring New Year’s to Oct. 16 as joy enwrapped the stadium as the ball dropped on a three-run homer.
Judge would add a sprawling grab racing forward on a Cameron Maybin liner — Statcast had it as a catch just 29 percent of the time — in the fifth. Suddenly, the Yankees had their MVP candidate playing that way.
“Judge did what Judge has done 50-plus times, which is hit the ball out of the ballpark when he gets a pitch to hit,” Houston manager A.J. Hinch said. “Big moment won by Judge. It was his night. He played defense tonight. He did a lot of things well for them. And really was a big difference in the game.”
Along with his array of on-field skills, Judge has engendered admiration from the Yankees — front office and teammates — for tough-mindedness. He did not surrender to a bad cameo last year or lose his head amid the love-fest that engulfed him in the first half or collapse with seven weeks of struggles to begin the second half.
“He has tremendous belief in himself and confidence,” Chase Headley said. “He doesn’t let the struggles beat him up.”
It is why Joe Girardi has refused to remove Judge from the two-hole, though he went into ALCS Game 3 hitting .129 in these playoffs with 19 strikeouts in 31 atbats.
“A big change I wanted to make this year is was just prepare the right way, prepare the same way and see how it works,” Judge said. “It worked during the regular season, so why would I could into the postseason and try to change something even though I’m struggling for three or four or five or six games?”
Like their biggest star, the Yankees collectively have shown focus and fortitude in their playoffs of living dangerously. The Yankees knew getting out of Houston meant not only playing in preferred environs, but being done for two games with Dallas Keuchel and Justin Verlander, who had dominated them there. They need to tie the series before facing Keuchel again in Game 5.
Step 1 was Monday night and the toughminded Yankees responded. Sabathia was Pettitte-esque. Frazier capitalized on the dimensions of Yankee Stadium. A DH (Headley) finally got a hit and an RBI this postseason for the Yankees.
And Judge offered two-way play both terrific and timely. He was really good and the Yankees won. If that sounds familiar, it should. It is the story of the 2017 Yankees.