By Brendan Kuty / The Athletic
During the celebration, Gleyber Torres, the New York Yankees’ second baseman, was catching hell. Aaron Judge had finally hit his first home run of this postseason, a towering blast that cleared the wall in center field. But as the ball sliced through the night, Torres, leading off first base, did something peculiar. He tagged up.
When the ball finally went out, Yankee Stadium erupted. It gave the Yankees a four-run lead in what became a 6-3 win against the Cleveland Guardians in Game 2 of the best-of-seven American League Championship Series on Tuesday. Heading into Thursday night’s Game 3 in Cleveland, the Yankees were two wins away from reaching their first World Series since 2009.
But Judge was still surprised, even hours later. He had nearly passed Torres while rounding first base after the seventh-inning, two-run shot. Did Torres really doubt that Judge — masher of an MLB-best 58 home runs in the regular season — had put enough of his 6-foot-7, 282-pound frame into his swing for the ball to leave the yard?
Torres had tagged up on a Judge home run earlier in the season, too. Judge was playfully miffed about it then, he said, and he was miffed about it now. In the dugout, Torres’ teammates piled on.
“I’m a little disappointed in Gleyber for not knowing Judge’s pop there,” first baseman Anthony Rizzo said. “We were ribbing him a lot about that.”
“I feel a little bit embarrassed,” Torres admitted.
The MLB playoffs rarely allow time for laughs, with each pitch mattering more than the next. Judge’s home run let the Yankees exhale for many reasons, but especially because it showed Judge just how important it is for him to be the team’s driving force.
“Always a matter of time with Aaron,” manager Aaron Boone said about Judge hitting his next home run.
The prevailing thought has been that if the Yankees are going to play deep into October, they will need Judge to continue the production that made him the front-runner this year to win the AL MVP Award, which would be his second.
Until Tuesday, that was not happening. Offensively, he had struggled, hitting .133 (2 for 15) through the first five playoff games, though he did draw six walks. It continued a pattern of not rising to the occasion in the postseason, which has stained his otherwise illustrious career.
But Judge may be changing that.
In his first at-bat, he lifted a pop-up at 103.3 mph that seemed to scream back to earth even faster. Cleveland shortstop Brayan Rocchio dropped it, allowing Torres to score from third base to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead. Then, in a surprise move in the second inning, the Guardians walked Juan Soto intentionally to load the bases for Judge. Facing pitcher Tanner Bibee, Judge lifted a sacrifice fly to center field to bring home Rizzo to make it 3-0.
After flying out in the fifth, Judge bashed his first homer of the playoffs. It took some of the weight off the Yankees’ shoulders and allowed the bullpen to work with a sizable lead. And it lifted the Yankees, who were desperate for their captain to join the party.
“It’s so easy to root for him,” Rizzo said. “In these games, it really doesn’t matter who it is, how excited we are for everyone. But when Aaron does stuff, it’s extra special just because he’s such a special human being.”
Judge said the expectations on him were not weighing him down.
“Just don’t make any moment too big, man,” he said. “It’s still the same game we play and we’ve been playing our whole life. So that’s how I try to treat it.”
Except now it is different. Judge has been to the ALCS three times before: in 2017, 2019 and 2022. The Yankees lost in all three. He knows the stakes are higher than ever. This is the first time his team has been ahead, two games to none, in a championship series after coming into it as the top seed.
Judge has put himself in the pantheon of the most talented and productive Yankees in history. He was the league’s MVP in 2022, when he set the AL single-season record for home runs with 62. He is the team’s 16th official captain and a six-time All-Star, and he was a rookie of the year in 2017.
But he is not a World Series champion. That matters.
“It doesn’t matter what you do during a 162-game schedule,” Derek Jeter said at the Yankees’ Old-Timers’ Day in August. “It all boils down to the World Series. Win a championship, or it’s a failure.”
The series had a day off Wednesday. The Yankees used the day for a light workout before flying to Cleveland for Game 3 on Thursday. Progressive Field has not been kind to Judge in his career. In 20 games there, he has hit .214 (15 for 70) with two home runs.
A silver lining? The Guardians were expected to start left-hander Matthew Boyd, and in 11 career plate appearances against him, Judge had two hits, including a home run, and five walks. The Yankees were to counter with right-hander Clarke Schmidt, who was to be making his second start of the postseason. In Game 3 of the division series at Kansas City, he allowed two runs in 4 2/3 innings in a 3-2 Yankees victory but did not get a decision.
“I’ve been on the losing side of a lot of postseason games, and those are tough,” Judge said after Tuesday’s game. “I’ve been on the other side of some good wins. All that matters is we went out there and took care of business, and we’ve got to move on to the next one.”
MLB PLAYOFFS
League Championship Series (Best of 7)
National League
Last Sunday’s Game 1
Los Angeles Dodgers 9, New York Mets 0
Monday’s Game 2
Mets 7, Dodgers 3 (Series tied 1-1)
Wednesday’s Game 3
Dodgers 8, Mets 0 (Dodgers lead series 2-1)
Thursday’s Game 4
(All times Eastern)
Dodgers at Mets, 8:08 p.m.
Friday’s Game 5
Dodgers at Mets, 5:08 p.m. (Fox Sports)
Sunday’s Game 6 (if needed)
Mets at Dodgers, 8:08 p.m. (Fox Sports)
American League
Monday’s Game 1
New York Yankees 5, Cleveland Guardians 2
Tuesday’s Game 2
Yankees 6, Guardians 3 (NY leads series 2-0)
Thursday’s Game 3
Yankees at Guardians, 5:08 p.m.
Friday’s Game 4
Yankees at Guardians, 8:08 p.m. (TBS)
Saturday’s Game 5 (if needed)
Yankees at Guardians, 8:08 p.m. (TBS)
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