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By Jon Paul Hoornstra
Contributing Sports Writer
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The New York Yankees have a chance to clinch a trip to the American League Championship Series on Thursday by beating the Kansas City Royals. Giancarlo Stanton's eighth-inning home run Wednesday night lifted the Yankees to a 3-2 victory and a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five series.
Stanton, whose .633 career postseason slugging percentage dwarfs his .525 regular-season mark, is no stranger to October heroics.
The same cannot be said of Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge.
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The probable AL Most Valuable Player, Judge is 1 for 11 to begin the series. He hit .322 with 58 home runs and 144 RBIs in the regular season; his next postseason home run or RBI will be his first.
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Perhaps most concerning to Yankees fans: this is nothing new. Judge hit .063 (1 for 16) with no home runs in their last playoff series, a 2022 AL Championship Series loss to the Houston Astros.
In his career, Judge is hitting .203 with 13 home runs and 25 RBIs in 47 playoff games. After striking out in four of his first six plate appearances against the Royals, Judge moved into the all-time lead for the highest postseason strikeout percentage by any player with at least 200 October plate appearances:
Fortunately for the Yankees, Judge's subpar performance hasn't cost them a victory in two of their first three ALDS games. And as is always the case this time of year, it's a small sample size.
That still hasn't prevented some Yankee fans from using Judge's performance as a springboard for criticism.
Speaking to Brendan Kuty of The Athletic, Yankees hitting coach James Rowson acknowledged that Judge's swing was off — but not by much.
"I thought his at-bats were great (Wednesday)," Rowson told Kuty. "I thought he showed up. Even in his (batting practice) earlier, you started seeing him hit the ball the right away. You started seeing the ball spin a little bit. Felt like his swings in the game were really good. Just missed a couple of balls today. I feel like he's in a good spot. We know with Judgey, it's any moment, man. Because I don't think he's far in general. I think his swings are getting closer to being what we're accustomed to seeing here."
More news: MLB Playoffs: Yankees' Lineup for ALDS Game 2 Features Major Surprise
Teammate Alex Verdugo, who drove in the game-winning run in the Yankees' Game 1 victory, noted that Judge "literally just missed three balls (Wednesday) probably by a smidge of a hair."
The Yankees' offense is effectively built around two players — Judge and Juan Soto. Any team that can neutralize that dual-threat has a decent chance of winning a short series, even against the team with the best regular season record in the American League.
Fans can be frustrated all they want, but the Yankees' lineup depth was a known risk. For any team, including the Royals, to exploit Judge's propensity for striking out is simply a sound strategy. And it's a strategy more teams should be able to execute in the playoffs when the pitching is generally better.
The Yankees' optimists might be right too. Judge might be close to breaking out. It's simply harder to do that this time of year.
Judge's $360 million contract opens him up to more criticism than all but a small handful of athletes. Fairly or unfairly, he might need to break out Thursday to quell the latest round of criticism.
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