The Aaron Judge slump watch continues as the Yankees now face an uphill battle, down two games to none in the world series. He’s one for nine with six strikeouts in the series, adding on to both 2024 and career numbers less than Judge like.
He’s six for forty this post season dropping his career batting average under the Mendoza line (.199). Worse still he’s an easy out right now. A constant feed of breaking stuff off the plate that he just can’t lay off of. He knows, he just can’t stop right now.
“Plain and simple, I’ve got to start swinging at strikes,”
It’s allowed the Dodgers to pitch around Juan Soto and there has to be more to come until Judge shows he can hurt them. The lower portion of the Yankees line up does not match up with what the Dodgers have there. They punish through Stanton, batting behind Judge but Judge makes it work.
Do the Yankees need to flip flop Stanton and Judge or can can Judge find his bearings. It’s not like he’s never gone through hard times and that includes this marvelous season. For three weeks in July he hit just .228 with 3 homers in 57 at bats with 18 strikeouts.
You don’t notice it so much mid summer, it’s a killer in the post season. It can however turn on a dime and has in the past. Many a star has dragged poor post season numbers around for years before finally breaking out and making it count.
Barry Bonds stands near the top. Entering the 2022 post season, the 37 year old Bonds had played in three NLCS with the Pittsburgh Pirates and two NLDS with the San Francisco Giants. All five series were losses and Bonds did not help the cause.
Bonds went just 19 for 97 with one homerun. Then in his 17th season, 2022 happened and he filpped the script. He went 16 for 45 with eight homeruns, four of those in the series. The Giants had taken out Atlanta and St Louis before losing to the Angels in a 7 game world series.
Clayton Kershaw had several post season letdowns before winning his world series in 2020. His career ERA in the playoffs is 4.50 compared to his amazing regular season mark of 2.50. In the 2020 series Kershaw won both of his starts as the Dodgers beat the Tampa Bay Rays.
David Price went 1-8 in nine starts between 2010 and 2016. In his final post season in 2018 at age 32, Price helped pitch the Red Sox to a championship. He went 3-0 in the ALCS and fall classic.
There certainly is time for Aaron Judge to turn it on and help the Yankees make a series out of this one, but not a lot.
