There’s plenty of precedent for World Series woes, but no fun in seeing Aaron Judge struggle

When Aaron Judge digs into the batter’s box, he brings along a portrait of greatness. On the navy part of his Statue of Liberty batting gloves is an outline of Michael Jordan in flight, the famous Jumpman logo. Lots of people wear it, in and out of sports. Few can claim to be like Mike.

Judge can. He is the captain of the New York Yankees and the most prolific slugger of his time. Even if you want him to lose, you hope that he captivates you while doing it. Crowds didn’t always root for Jordan, but nobody paid to see him slip on his way to the air.

That’s why it’s painful to watch Judge struggle in the World Series. He is 1-for-9 with six strikeouts, and while it’s only two games, another Yankees loss in Game 3 on Monday would all but seal the title for the Los Angeles Dodgers. No team has ever recovered from a three-games-to-none deficit to win the World Series.

“Because of his size and his track record, you think he’s different from everybody else, and he is, because he’s so gifted in all facets of the game — but he’s also human,” said Jim Palmer, the Hall of Famer who pitched in six World Series and called another four for ABC.

“It’s not karma, it’s not that he’s an arrogant guy and points at people. Some guys deserve to have a bad streak, but Aaron Judge is not in that group, because he’s too classy a guy. He’s respectful, all that stuff. But I always tell Suzyn Waldman — what does John Sterling say? ‘That’s baseball, Suzyn?’ And that’s exactly what’s happening.”

Baseball has always been like this. Ty Cobb hit .200 in his first World Series. Honus Wagner hit .222. Walter Johnson and Christy Mathewson lost as often as they won in the World Series, and both lost a winner-take-all game. That quartet, with Babe Ruth, comprised the very first class in the Hall of Fame.

There’s more. Willie Mays never homered in the World Series. Jackie Robinson hit .182 in 1955 and was benched at Yankee Stadium for Game 7, when Brooklyn won its only championship. Ted Williams, bothered by an elbow injury, hit five singles in 25 at-bats in his only World Series. Mike Schmidt was an MVP in his first World Series but went 1-for-20 in his next.

“You do your best to make swing changes — make thought changes — as you go, and if you don’t, the environment is so electric that sometimes you give in to the environment,” Schmidt told me a few years ago for “The Grandest Stage,” my book on the history of the World Series.

“You’re overanxious, you read headlines, you’re 0-for-15, whatever the heck it was. You start to feel like: ‘This is bad, the whole world knows how bad I am!’ As opposed to: ‘Who cares?’”

It’s hard to play loose with so much at stake. Judge talked late Saturday night about “expanding the zone” and “trying to make something happen,” which hitters say when they’re not swinging at strikes. It’s an unfamiliar feeling for Judge, whose plate discipline helps make him elite.

Judge had the lowest chase rate in the American League during the regular season, swinging at just 17.7 percent of pitches outside the zone, according to Statcast data at Fangraphs. This postseason, though, Judge’s rate has spiked to 29.7 percent. In 11 games this month, Judge is 6-for-40 (.150) with two homers and 19 strikeouts.

The Dodgers have consistently kept Judge off balance. He saw 43 pitches in the first two games and only once got two fastballs in a row, singling off the second for his only hit, off Brusdar Graterol in Game 1.

That followed three strikeouts by starter Jack Flaherty, all swinging, all on a different pitch: a slider in the zone in the first inning, a curveball in the dirt in the third, a fastball on the outside corner in the sixth.

In his last at-bat of Game 1, against closer Blake Treinen, Judge took two sweepers for strikes, then resisted a third that was far off the plate for ball 1. He fouled off another sweeper before popping up on a fastball. Aaron Boone, the Yankees’ manager, was encouraged by that at-bat.

“I thought he had really good takes, I thought he got the right swing off, I thought he was long in the zone on the pitch he got to hit and ends up getting under it and popping it up, which just as easily could have been in the seats,” Boone told Tom Verducci on the Fox pregame show before Game 2. “I thought it was a really good at-bat, the right at-bat, and looked more in line (with) when I really see Aaron rolling.”

Yet Game 2 again brought three strikeouts and a harmless popout, this time without a single mixed in. Judge swung and missed at five different pitches: Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s slider, curveball, fastball and splitter and Treinen’s sweeper. Boone hinted at a mechanical issue possibly impacting Judge’s swing decisions, but he’s also simply missing pitches he usually drives.

Considering the matchup, the natural comparison is Dave Winfield, who went 1-for-22 in his first World Series against the Dodgers in 1981 and spoke with Judge on the field before Game 2.

Palmer called that World Series — while still an active player — and said his mind went to Winfield, too. He also noted that Winfield wound up in Cooperstown, where his plaque notes that he doubled in the World Series-winning run for Toronto in 1992.

“So that labels you in the moment, but does it label you for the rest of your career?” Palmer said. “Of course not.”

Judge still has time. In recent years, we’ve seen centerpiece players like David Wright of the New York Mets (2015)  and Bryce Harper of the Philadelphia Phillies (2022) go deep in Game 3 in their first career World Series at-bats before their home crowd. Nobody would be surprised if Judge does the same.

But however this all plays out, the angst of this postseason should make Judge better in the long run. Palmer, who now calls games for the Baltimore Orioles, said Judge long ago showed that he can learn from disappointment.

“Will he be able to change it, I don’t know, but if he doesn’t — or even if he does — it makes you more reflective,” Palmer said. “He’s the king of adjustments; he struck out 42 times in 84 times up in his rookie year and then the next year he hit 52 home runs. So you know he’ll try to get better.

“But it’s hard to do that in a short series.”

(Top photo of Aaron Judge in Game 1 of the World Series: Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)