Aaron Judge’s Slump Emblematic of Yankees’ World Series Struggles

The New York Yankees pulled out all the appropriate lines for their situation. In a quiet clubhouse, suddenly down, 3–0, to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series, they said they just need to focus on tomorrow. They need to go one game at a time, shut out any outside noise, take care of business. They need to get back to playing their brand of baseball. And there was one more thing, one they did not say very much about, presumably because it was so painfully obvious to everyone in the room after their performance in Game 3.

They need to hit.

The final score on Monday was Dodgers 4, Yankees 2, but that painted a mistakenly flattering picture of their play. They were at risk of being kept scoreless down to their very last out: A two-run home run from left fielder Alex Verdugo with two outs and two strikes in the bottom of the ninth was the only meaningful offense all night for the Yankees. His shot to right field saved them from an embarrassing shutout. But there was still plenty of embarrassment to go around. This is one of the best lineups in baseball. Its power has all but vanished over the last few days.

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“We’ve got to find a way to grab one,” said Yankees manager Aaron Boone. “We’ve got to find a way to hopefully try to get a lead.”

If finding a way to hopefully try to get a lead sounds like a laughably modest, far-too-caveated goal for a team playing in the World Series, it’s appropriate in this case. New York never held the lead in Game 2 or Game 3. Those deficits have not been especially large: The Dodgers have never been up by more than four runs in this series. They have grabbed early leads, and they have done just enough to win, but they have not been exceptionally dominant. Yet the Yankees’ bats have looked so inept that even a two- or three-run lead can feel impossible to overcome.  

The problems have been clear all up and down the lineup. New York has a collective batting average of .186 in this World Series. A group known in the regular season for exceptional plate discipline and its ability to control the strike zone is now chasing all kinds of pitches that it should not: The Yankees have recorded 31 strikeouts. (The Dodgers have 17.) That is partially a product of L.A.’s pitching: Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Walker Buehler, in particular, delivered their best performances of the year when they were needed most. “They’ve got some good pitchers over there,” said Yankees catcher Jose Trevino. “You’ve got to give them some credit.” But this lineup was supposed to be able to produce against even the best competition. That is precisely what it was built to do. It has instead wilted.

While there is blame to go around—plenty of mistakes and missed chances—no one finds himself in a position to absorb so much of it as Aaron Judge. The superstar slugger had struggled in the postseason in years past. But he’s never quite looked quite so lost, under quite such bright lights, as has been the case this October. For the series’s first game in New York, fans tried a gentle, motivational approach with him: They greeted Judge in his first plate appearance with a rousing ovation and M-V-P chants. But he was hearing boos at the end of the night. 

Judge finished 0-for-3. There were silver linings present for those inclined to look for them: He struck out just once, compared to three times in Game 2, he drew his first walk of the series and he made solid contact on a flyout to left field that had the potential to be a hit. But that sort of exercise is ridiculous on its face. When a team gets in the position of looking for silver linings in an 0-for-3 performance from its MVP, its hopes are already far, far gone. 

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For his part, Judge refused to entertain any notion of bright spots in his performance. “I didn’t get any hits and didn’t drive anybody in,” he said flatly when asked to evaluate his night. “I’ve got to get something done up there.” He is now 1-for-12 in this World Series. The man who posted the highest walk percentage in baseball in the regular season (18.9%) has managed to walk just once in three games.

Judge spoke with the media until half an hour past midnight. “We all know what’s at stake,” he said. “We all know our backs are against the wall. We’ve got to get going.” He talked about how good this group knows it can be, and how they’re focused just on winning this next game, and how they understand they have a job to do. But all of this was a way of speaking around just one question, really, that had just one answer.

They need to hit.