Imagine watching “Citizen Kane” without being shown what “Rosebud” is. Viewing “Friends” without a resolution on Ross and Rachel. Reading “The Great Gatsby” without its final page.
Is Aaron Judge’s unforgettable season really going to end so forgettably? Is the Judge Era in Yankees baseball going to be remembered for the inability to even reach the World Series because they notably could never solve the Astros?
Judge carried the Yankees in good times, and especially in bad, during one of the greatest regular seasons ever. But he has been no postseason weight lifter. Instead, he has been a co-conspirator in historic offensive ineptitude. Because of his stature, however, he is no sidekick. Judge is the face of misery as his regular season of boom has descended into a postseason of boo at Yankee Stadium.
“Obviously, he’s the biggest force and the key in our lineup, so we need to get something from him,” manager Aaron Boone said. “But that said, to win these games you need a little something from everyone. Sometimes that can be something small, sometimes it can be something big, sometimes it can be something unexpected.”
Actually, this ALCS has been going as expected, based on history. The Yankees have played 10 games against the Astros this season, and the only two they won — hell, the only two in which they have led after any of the 91 innings between these teams in 2022 — came on Judge walk-off hits in two late-June games. Then, as now, the Yankees go as Judge goes.
Thus, the Yankees are about to go home.
“You always want to be at your best,” Judge said. “But I wouldn’t say when I go, we go. We got a lot of individuals on this team that can carry the club. I gotta step up and do my job. I haven’t come up with the big hit. … But we still have a lot of ballgame left in us and just got to take care of business [Sunday].”
The Yankees are facing no tomorrow after a Game 3 that will not be part of Judge’s Yankeeography. His miscommunication on defense with Harrison Bader helped gift the Astros two runs in the second inning and, with one final chance to perhaps launch the Yankees back into the game and the series, he grounded out with two on and two outs in the eighth. That left him 0-for-4 with two strikeouts in Game 3, a 5-0 loss, and 1-for-12 in the series. And it left the Yankees down 3-0 in the series.
For the third time in six years — the entire Judge era — the Yankees are facing elimination in the ALCS by the Astros. Their excuses (sign-stealing, buzzers, opening of a retractable roof) are like their performance against Houston — getting worse. They lost in seven games in 2017, in six games in 2019 and are near humiliation in just four this time.
“It’s tough for me to say that, singling the rest of the offense out away from Judge or singling Judge out from the rest of the offense is probably not how we do things,” Gerrit Cole said. “Just taking it together as a team, whether we win or lose, that goes for when Aaron picks us up and that goes for when we pick Aaron up.”
No Yankee is lifting anyone in this ALCS. Cole, for example, called it “unfortunate” that Bader and Judge both called a two-out flyball between them. They had trouble hearing over the crowd and had a ball either could have caught routinely, instead, clank off Bader’s glove as he was distracted by Judge’s crossing proximity. Bader described two players doing their best to make a catch. Judge said, “I take responsibility for” distracting Bader.
Chas McCormick followed with a short-porch homer to make it 2-0. The Yankees never capitalized similarly on their home dimensions. They are facing a nearly rebuilt Houston staff from the one they lost to in 2017 and in 2019 (the latter of which had Cole), and they’re doing worse than ever.
The Yankees also did not hit against the Guardians in the Division Series. But those are the AL Central Guardians, so the Yankees survived. These are the Astros. And the Yankees are trying to win without the professional at-bats of Andrew Benintendi and DJ LeMahieu, with a diminished Matt Carpenter and a decrepit Josh Donaldson.
That only heightens the need for Judge to rise. Instead, the Yankees had one hit through eight innings before two meaningless ninth-inning singles. On June 25, Cristian Javier pitched the best game that was thrown against the Yankees this season, throwing the first seven innings of a combined no-hitter, with 13 strikeouts. He only threw a first-pitch strike to six of 19 hitters Saturday, yet still pitched 5 ¹/₃ shutout innings as the Yankees could do nothing, even while ahead in the count.
During the season, Judge’s magic often saved them at such times. But he is now 5-for-32 with 14 strikeouts in the 2022 postseason. Against Houston, he has a single and no walks in three games, and the Yankees are hitting .128 with four total runs.
You need to be neither jury nor Judge to see the obvious. The Yankees’ only path to overcoming a superior team that is living in their heads is on Judge’s broad shoulders.
But the regular season ended nearly three weeks ago.
